EDITORIAL: School district struggles with falling enrollment

Southern Nevada’s estimated population over the past five years has increased about 5 percent, reaching nearly 2.3 million people in 2022. At the same time, the number of students enrolled in the Clark County School District has dropped each year over that time, falling to a daily average of 296,000 for the 2022-23 academic year.

Fewer kids means fewer dollars from state taxpayers. On Monday, the School Board approved an amended budget with the updated enrollment figures, a $2.8 billion spending plan. That’s $32.6 million less than what district officials expected when they made student population estimates last year.

In the world of government-speak, that represents a budget cut. But a candid Jason Goudie, the district’s chief financial officer, noted that “you can’t lose something that you never had.” He’s correct. Besides, it’s rather silly to talk of budget problems when the district has received more than $1 billion in federal pandemic aid.

The real question should be: Where have all the children gone?

“It’s interesting that we’re not seeing the student population growing in the same way” as Clark County’s population overall, Megan Griffard, an assistant professor in UNLV’s education policy and leadership program, told the Review-Journal.

But this is no mystery. The pandemic and its school closures proved eye-opening to many families, who discovered alternatives to the traditional public schools. The intransigence of teachers unions and their irresponsible rhetoric attacking those who sought to quickly open campuses also proved instructive in terms of highlighting who these organizations actually serve.

“In just the first full school year after the onset of the pandemic, national K-12 public school enrollment fell by 1.1 million students, an unprecedented decline of over 2 percent,” Thomas Dee of Stanford wrote in EducationWeek last month. “Roughly a third was in kindergarten alone.” A broad return to the public schools once the pandemic cooled “simply did not happen.”

In Clark County, an increasing number of charter schools and steady growth in home-schooling have pulled students from a district that has for years struggled with academic achievement. An uptick in instances of school violence thanks to lax disciplinary policies has also contributed to parents investigating their options. The district’s sheer size — the nation’s fifth-largest — has become an issue, as a referendum to allow deconsolidation will probably qualify for the ballot.

Ms. Griffard told the Review-Journal that “she thinks the district will want to consider what can be done to bring students and families back into its schools.” Perhaps a good first step would be for district leadership to ensure a safe learning environment while making clear they will hold all students to high behavioral and academic standards.