In science they say if it’s not going forward it’s
going backwards, well friends our school system seems to be going backwards.
In a piece about the school district seeking to attract
charter schools back to it, a laudable and achievable goal, a disturbing figure
was brought to light.
From the Times Union: The district’s
enrollment was 126,873 in 2003-04 and today that number is 119,188. Meanwhile,
charter school enrollment was 609 in 2003-04 and stands at 7,795 this school
year. That means during the 03-04 school year there were 127,479 kids in public
and charter schools but fast forward a decade and there are only 126,913 a
decrease of 566 kids. Now some crappy private schools operating out of
abandoned strip malls taking vouchers kids and homeschooling probably explains
that number to a degree but still an increase of just a thousand or so kids in
a decade should be troublesome. http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2013-09-17/story/vitti-says-he-district-ready-pursue-charter-students
According to city data.com our
population went from 735,617, thousand in 2000 to 821,784 in 2010 for an
increase of 86,167 but at the same time our school age population went from 142,401,
children 5-17 in 2000, to 138,791, a decrease of 2.5 percent in 2010.
Where
have the kids gone and can we go forward without them?
Yes it is and many who have young kids are relocating to nearby counties, charter schools, private schools or leaving the first coast. Check the stats for the 21-35 age group.
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