More Staff, Fewer Students
How long can this go on?
A year ago I was looking at staffing and enrollment trends and was struck dumb by what I found. In the 2023-24 school year, public schools across the country added 121,000 employees even as they served 110,000 fewer students. That’s… unsustainable, right?
Well, here we are in 2026, the federal government has just released new data, and things are trending in the same direction. In the 2024-25 school year, I found that public schools added 118,000 employees school year even as they served 135,000 fewer students.
In my latest piece for The 74, I break down the employment numbers by role and ask how long this can go on. Read it here.
Reading List
Kara Arundel: Trump signs $79B federal education funding bill into law
Tim Daly: Gambling is an epidemic
Jamie Osborne: Why Virginia Should Include Social Studies in its Accountability System
Chris Cerf: Handing out diplomas disconnected from proficiency is a profound error
Do the data suggest any variation in staffing-to-enrollment ratios by state or region? I wonder if this is similar to how teacher "shortages" are highly region and endorsement-dependent.