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The New Reality Roundup | Week 198

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It’s week 198 of our new reality and we are thinking about the huge challenge on the horizon of rightsizing school districts in the face of declining enrollment while growing opportunities for all kids.

“Fresh from the academic struggles that followed the pandemic, and with federal relief funds soon to run out,” many of the nation’s largest school districts “now confront a massive enrollment crisis,” Linda Jacobson reports in The 74.

When a school loses more than 20% of its students, it becomes much harder to run sustainably. Since the 2019-20 school year, that has happened to 25% of Philadelphia schools, 24% of Albuquerque schools, 21% of Los Angeles schools, 21% of Seattle schools and 19% of New York City schools. “Many districts with declining enrollment have been able to delay closures by relying on federal relief funds to offset the loss in state funding,” writes Jacobson. But later this year those federal funds will come to an end.

We know how damaging downsizing can be for children but the longer school districts wait, the worse off kids will be. It is crucial that districts move quickly so that the money that does remain isn’t used to prop up half-filled buildings instead of providing all children with the robust education they deserve.

Last time in The New Reality Roundup, we reflected on the ways our education system improved in 2023. This week, we are proud to launch our 2024 advocacy campaigns with 50 goals across 10 states. And stay tuned for further exciting announcements coming from 50CAN this month!

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The New Reality Roundup | Week 192

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It is week 192 of our new reality and we are thinking about how to build bridges between the world of schooling and the world of work.

“Friday mornings on a university campus are usually quiet times. Savvy students plan their schedules to avoid Friday classes, getting a head start on their weekends. But at Brown University’s Center for Career Exploration, there’s a steady stream of visitors, checking out jobs and internships, meeting with advisers and occasionally stopping on the way out to scoop up a few pieces of hard candy from the bowl on the reception counter. In the multistory office, steps from the university’s main quad, everything is brand new, from the furniture to the stenciling on the window to some of the staff,” Jon Marcus writes for the Washington Post.

“After a two-year planning process, Brown has revamped and renamed its career center and is more than doubling its number of advisers, from 13 to 28. It’s an example of the new attention being devoted to career services by universities — even top universities, whose students probably won’t have trouble finding jobs — as demand from students and other consumers gets louder for a tangible return on the investment in a degree.”

It’s an area of investment that is also long overdue in American high schools as well and deserves to be a key element of the education systems of the future. As we wrote in Believe in Better: American students deserve a “clear path to the career you choose. It’s about finding your fit and your pathway to a meaningful life” which will require a renewed commitment to helping students find the internships, apprenticeships and work-based study programs they need to get ahead.

Last week we looked at the student attendance crisis and dove into what science tells us about community organizing as a core advocacy strategy. This week we look at the effort to rein in cellphones at school and spread the good news about charter schools.

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