Enrollment Dropping at Florida Schools (Fort Myers, Lee: job, homes, college)

[Prichard]

There could be many reasons for this. More people could be enroling in private schools. More people are home schooling their kids. Do you really think the Dempartment of Education has good numbers on these demographics? Ya, sure they do.

Also, the second-wave baby boom is over (well for a little while longer anyway.) Has everyone forgot that we have a ton of servicemen and woman over in Iraq and Afghanistan? These people haven't been making babies since 2001. Now, the schools are seeing the impact.

[121804]

Originally Posted by Lisa_from_Debary

I wonder if they also know how many children have been pulled from the public school system and sent to private or home schooled because the parents have found the public school system wanting...?

I geuss I will have to research that one, I wonder how it compares to the other states.

I read somewhere last week that AZ & TX are the only two states that have seen enrollment increases in 2005-06. OH, IN, FL, and some others were the ones with decreases. Don't quote me on it, though. I will try to find where I read it.

I am an adament proponent of private school, no matter where we are living. I do not believe in standard testing to be a way to mark a school's success and/or failure. I thank GW for the brillant & obviously horribly effects of No Child Left Behind. Savings account for school has already been started & he is only 18 months old.

[121804]

Originally Posted by Prichard

There could be many reasons for this. More people could be enroling in private schools. More people are home schooling their kids. Do you really think the Dempartment of Education has good numbers on these demographics? Ya, sure they do.

Also, the second-wave baby boom is over (well for a little while longer anyway.) Has everyone forgot that we have a ton of servicemen and woman over in Iraq and Afghanistan? These people haven't been making babies since 2001. Now, the schools are seeing the impact.

Home schooling is scyrocketing & taking off in many sectors. There are tons of places were play groups have been established for homeschoolers along w/ extracurriculars. The kid that just won the National Spelling Bee is homeschooled.

Lots of reasons for the decreases & the increase in affordablity, acceptability & resources for private schools & homeschoolers.

[Jammie]

The high cost of housing is getting the most blame. High property taxes and insurance rank right up there as well.//Unquote

I agree that there could be several factors involved. But the above quote from the article was their explanation.

[doggiebus]

Nearly half, 29 of the 67 school districts saw a decline in enrollment this year. Overall, the number of students enrolled in Florida's public schools increased only slightly (0.02 percent or 476.84 students) compared to last year. Monroe, Madison, Franklin and Glades Counties had the biggest declines losing between three to 11 percent of their enrollment compared to last year. However, a number of districts saw an increase. Flagler County experienced the largest increase of almost 10 percent (9.95 percent). St. Lucie County's enrollment increased by more than seven percent (7.19 percent). Another 36 school districts saw a less than five percent increase in enrollment.

This link has each county with their plus or minus percentage http://www.fldoe.org/fefp/pdf/oct06fte.pdf

[inftmyers]

Top three counties with largest gain of new students (number wise):
Lee- 3,564.77
Polk- 3,465.03
St. Lucie- 2,591.04

Top three counties with biggest loss of students (number wise):
Mimai-Dade- 7,705.65
Broward- 6,469.65
Palm Beach- 2,2773.87

I would have done top ten counties but that list has a lot of numbers!

[Suncoaster]

Originally Posted by Jammie

The high cost of housing is getting the most blame. High property taxes and insurance rank right up there as well.//Unquote

I agree that there could be several factors involved. But the above quote from the article was their explanation.

A while back, a St. Pete Times article concluded the same: that the high property taxes and stratospheric insurance cost was driving working families out. This pertained mostly to the Pinellas County School System, which hasn't had the expected increase in enrollment.

Inftmyers, thank you for posting your lists of Top Three. Very informative.

I would have done top ten counties but that list has a lot of numbers!

Would be very interested in seeing those numbers, though.

[hiknapster]

You might want to revisit that chart.

It's also showing projections against actual calculations for 2006-2007, which in the final analysis, most of the Florida counties fell below, including Lee County at -2.04 percent.

It's also showing Virtual School numbers to be way up. I wonder if that has something to do with homeschooling?

[inftmyers]

Originally Posted by hiknapster

You might want to revisit that chart.

It's also showing projections against actual calculations for 2006-2007, which in the final analysis, most of the Florida counties fell below, including Lee County at -2.04 percent.

It's also showing Virtual School numbers to be way up. I wonder if that has something to do with homeschooling?

Ya I saw that. It seemed like all but 5 or 6 counties had fewer students enroll than expected. The ones that had more were the very unpopulated counties. I posted the top and bottom three counties based on the actual numbers and not the predicted ones. I think it's odd that the bottom three counties were all the counties that make up South Florida. I also find it strange that each one of the top three counties represents a different area. Lee being the west coast, Polk being central florida, and St. Lucie representing the East Coast. Just seems odd to me that the growth isn't concentrated in one area like the losses are.

[121804]

http://edr.state.fl.us/conferences/p...t%20Trends.pdf

Take a look at page 6.