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If parents are choosing to flee the public schools, which they are, then obviously they don't think the schools are doing their job. Yet liberals and public school advocates want to keep them trapped.

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Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida Republicans have spent years aggressively turning the state into a haven for school choice. They have been wildly successful, with tens of thousands more children enrolling in private or charter schools or homeschooling.

Now as those programs balloon, some of Florida's largest school districts are facing staggering enrollment declines and grappling with the possibility of campus closures as dollars follow the increasing number of parents opting out of traditional public schools.


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Since 2019-20, when the pandemic upended education, some 53,000 students have left traditional public schools in these counties, a sizable total that is forcing school leaders to consider closing campuses that have been entrenched in local communities for years.

In Broward County, Florida's second-largest school district, officials have floated plans to close up to 42 campuses over the next few years, moves that would have a ripple effect across Fort Lauderdale and Hollywood.

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https://www.politico.com/news/2024/05/26/desantis-florida-school-closures-00159926

Don't suck and you probably won't lose so many students

Bet they could save some of those campuses by cutting 1/2 the districts administrators.

Essence of liberalism: "if you aren't forced to use our crappy government schools then what will happen to all our crappy union member teachers?! The kids?! Who cares about the kids! There are union dues at stake!"

Looks like some private schools might be able to pick up some real estate on the cheap.

Closing a school isn't the end of the world. Businesses close every day.

The public school system isn't a jobs program. Adapt and move on.

Doesn't this mean there is a higher demand for private school teachers and staff?

Stressboy said:

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Bet they could save some of those campuses by cutting 1/2 the districts administrators.

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This! So much of the money goes to overhead vs students and teachers. SAD!

Agthatbuilds said:

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Don't suck and you probably won't lose so many students

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This sums up why we went the private school route.

They should also drop the "I" in ISD. There is not much "Independence" when it comes public education once the Feds got involved.

Gilligan said:

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Stressboy said:

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Bet they could save some of those campuses by cutting 1/2 the districts administrators.

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This! So much of the money goes to overhead vs students and teachers. SAD!

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Not here to fight for and against school choice. I don't really care one way or another. School Choice is not the death KNELL to public ed if districts adapt to create a meaningful experience parents want for their children. School Choice or not, public ed needs to change. The industrial model is no longer acceptable to prepare students for their futures.

On average, 80% or more of annual public Ed budgets are tied to salary/compensation. Less than 10% of that is "district level" administrators. But lets keep parroting this fallacy every time public ed and school choice is brought up. Cutting 1/2 the administrators to save 2-5% is not going to move the needle in saving campuses.

How did kids ever get an education in early America without state-funded public schools?

Privatize it ALL!!!

EdmondsWay said:

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Gilligan said:

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Stressboy said:

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Bet they could save some of those campuses by cutting 1/2 the districts administrators.

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This! So much of the money goes to overhead vs students and teachers. SAD!

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Not here to fight for and against school choice. I don't really care one way or another. School Choice is not the death nail to public ed if districts adapt to create a meaningful experience parents want for their children. School Choice or not, public ed needs to change. The industrial model is no longer acceptable to prepare students for their futures.

On average, 80% or more of annual public Ed budgets are tied to salary/compensation. Less than 10% of that is "district level" administrators. But lets keep parroting this fallacy every time public ed and school choice is brought up. Cutting 1/2 the administrators to save 2-5% is not going to move the needle in saving campuses.

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Who cares what "level" the over abundance of administrators is at?

Bye, Felicia!

I think the same for corporate America, too. Way too many levels of mgmnt that bring zero intrinsic value.

EdmondsWay said:

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Gilligan said:

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Stressboy said:

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Bet they could save some of those campuses by cutting 1/2 the districts administrators.

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This! So much of the money goes to overhead vs students and teachers. SAD!

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Not here to fight for and against school choice. I don't really care one way or another. School Choice is not the death nail to public ed if districts adapt to create a meaningful experience parents want for their children. School Choice or not, public ed needs to change. The industrial model is no longer acceptable to prepare students for their futures.

On average, 80% or more of annual public Ed budgets are tied to salary/compensation. Less than 10% of that is "district level" administrators. But lets keep parroting this fallacy every time public ed and school choice is brought up. Cutting 1/2 the administrators to save 2-5% is not going to move the needle in saving campuses.

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this says 14%, so half would be a 7%deduction. also, "knell"

The answer for gov't school districts losing funding is two-fold. First, consolidate children onto fewer campuses and eliminate the staff for the closed campuses. Also, sell the property. Second, focus on teaching math, science, English, and history. Add in some arts and p.e. Make gov't schools worth attending by teaching instead of indoctrinating.

Thank you for correcting my typo.

Can you break down administrators and support? I don't see it listed when visiting the site you referenced. Assuming that "admin/support" is including all admin at both the district and campus level as well as counselors and other campus level supports, I still stand by the numbers I referenced. My focus was only on district level, not campus based.

Surprised it's only 53,000

I'm not really sure how to fix the bond issue, but when it's easier to spend hundreds of millions to build a new school than spend tens of thousands to replace a leaky roof, you have billions of wasted dollars being spent.

taxpreparer said:

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The answer for gov't school districts losing funding is two-fold. First, consolidate children onto fewer campuses and eliminate the staff for the closed campuses. Also, sell the property. Second, focus on teaching math, science, English, and history. Add in some arts and p.e. Make gov't schools worth attending by teaching instead of indoctrinating.

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As parent whose kids went through catholic and private schools, indoctrination occurs even in private schools. It is just not as pervasive. The good thing is you can always move you kid to another school if so desired, which we did due to school not meeting the academic needs of my kids.

taxpreparer said:

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The answer for gov't school districts losing funding is two-fold. First, consolidate children onto fewer campuses and eliminate the staff for the closed campuses. Also, sell the property. Second, focus on teaching math, science, English, and history. Add in some arts and p.e. Make gov't schools worth attending by teaching instead of indoctrinating.

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Amen. Came here to post this. Give folks what they want, and they will come back. If conservatives were as active as liberals and shouted them down, it would work. Be a thorn in the side of administration and school board members. They want their way, but hate conflict. In the name of suburbia house, a Lexus and Subirban, many folks abdicated their concern to "well someone else will tend to my kids education " and concentrated on dual careers and not raising their kids.
You gotta give to get. Same at church, where young ones vote for gyms and palaces and mission trips to the beach, but don't tithe and don't volunteer.

Consolidation may be an answer to a certain extent, but I already see classrooms with 30 kids per teacher. That's too many kids if you want them to get a quality education. My son attends a high school that has a population almost as big as the hometown I grew up in. I'm sorry, but that's too big.

My wife is a school administrator in one of the largest school districts in Florida. THE biggest problem, hands down, is the inability to outright fire substandard teachers and administrators. Problem and low performing employees just get moved. Publics schools will not get fixed until unions are banned.

The former principle of the high school she just moved to did such a piss-poor job that not only was the school getting a failing overall ranking but it was $30k in the red.

Did that principle get fired? Nope. Just moved out of running a school and into some desk job downtown.

I tell my wife and our friends who are teachers that parents are revolting against public schools because of this lack of accountibility and I get zero disagreement from them.

EdmondsWay said:

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Thank you for correcting my typo.

Can you break down administrators and support? I don't see it listed when visiting the site you referenced. Assuming that "admin/support" is including all admin at both the district and campus level as well as counselors and other campus level supports, I still stand by the numbers I referenced. My focus was only on district level, not campus based.

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Where are you numbers coming from? Can you provide a link?

EdmondsWay said:

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Gilligan said:

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Stressboy said:

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Bet they could save some of those campuses by cutting 1/2 the districts administrators.

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This! So much of the money goes to overhead vs students and teachers. SAD!

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Not here to fight for and against school choice. I don't really care one way or another. School Choice is not the death KNELL to public ed if districts adapt to create a meaningful experience parents want for their children. School Choice or not, public ed needs to change. The industrial model is no longer acceptable to prepare students for their futures.

On average, 80% or more of annual public Ed budgets are tied to salary/compensation. Less than 10% of that is "district level" administrators. But lets keep parroting this fallacy every time public ed and school choice is brought up. Cutting 1/2 the administrators to save 2-5% is not going to move the needle in saving campuses.

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Source?

FL_Ag1998 said:

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Consolidation may be an answer to a certain extent, but I already see classrooms with 30 kids per teacher. That's too many kids if you want them to get a quality education. My son attends a high school that has a population almost as big as the hometown I grew up in. I'm sorry, but that's too big.

My wife is a school administrator in one of the largest school districts in Florida. THE biggest problem, hands down, is the inability to outright fire substandard teachers and administrators. Problem and low performing employees just get moved. Publics schools will not get fixed until unions are banned.

The former principle of the high school she just moved to did such a piss-poor job that not only was the school getting a failing overall ranking but it was $30k in the red.

Did that principle get fired? Nope. Just moved out of running a school and into some desk job downtown.

I tell my wife and our friends who are teachers that parents are revolting against public schools because of this lack of accountibility and I get zero disagreement from them.

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School research in the 80s said if High school gets more than 600 kids, it is too big. I would draw line at 1000. After that, kids lose identity and buy in and marginal kids get squeezed out of athletics and other extra curricular activities due to competition.
Not being able to fire bad teachers is huge problem. Until that is fixed, schools are toast.
I guess I was lucky to be in rural Texas for my career where kids were expected to mind. Teachers were expected to teach and were let go if they didn't. You have to have a Superintendent who has a backbone. My favorite line by one of my bosses when threatened to be sued, he said "get in line". No suits ever came.

District level Administrators

Salary and Benefits

Stressboy said:

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Bet they could save some of those campuses by cutting 1/2 the districts administrators.

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If 53,000 kids have left the government schools, why save 42 campuses? 1,000 kids per campus means 53 campuses should be retired from service.

My taxes keep going up (via appraisal) to build new campuses. I would love for a few campuses to be shut down around me and there be a moratorium on building government schools for a decade in my district. If campuses go away then administration should as well.

Eso si, Que es said:

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Stressboy said:

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Bet they could save some of those campuses by cutting 1/2 the districts administrators.

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If 53,000 kids have left the government schools, why save 42 campuses? 1,000 kids per campus means 53 campuses should be retired from service.

My taxes keep going up (via appraisal) to build new campuses. I would love for a few campuses to be shut down around me and there be a moratorium on building government schools for a decade in my district. If campuses go away then administration should as well.

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I would assume many of the schools are huge in that county. And as others have said above, smaller schools make better schools. If you can cut the fat (that may mean sports programs as well), cut the classroom size, and keep the best teachers you can create competitive schools that teach the basics.

Take out some of the really big HS campuses and move those grades back to elementary or middle school campuses that are slated to be closed. The teachers will know each child so that the crazies are given the help they need before they go columbine or uvalde. By the way, people knew that uvalde kid was a psychopath and they did nothing. Everyone of those people who knew he tortured and killed cats should be ashamed of themselves for saying nothing.

Agthatbuilds said:

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Don't suck and you probably won't lose so many students

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This. I saw private Christian school, Corem Deo was looking to move their Dallas campus to Richardson. They had a church picked out and were going to buy and move there pending Richardson city council approval.
The city council turned them down and one of the stated reasons was they didn't want them to compete against RISD because they're already losing students.
Uh no, how about you up your game RISD so parents want to send their kids there.