Falling birthrate and funding forces school closures

At a February board meeting for Memphis-Shelby county schools in Tennessee, a parent of five children who currently or formerly attended Ida B Wells Academy, an alternative education school, asked board members a question.

- By Eric Berger

“This is a high-performing school. This is not a school in crisis,” she said. “So I respectfully ask, why are we considering closing a school that is working?”Indeed, while only 23% of students at the K-8 school tested at or above grade level in English language arts and 27% tested at or above grade level in maths which was below state averages - that was still better than the district’s Chickasaw middle school, where only 7% of students tested at or above grade level in English and less than 5% did so in maths, according to state data.

But the district was still considering closing both those schools - and three others too - in large part because student enrolment had plummeted, which meant the district was not using parts of old buildings that required significant maintenance.

The district is one among many in the US that have closed schools and are considering closing more. One of the primary reasons is that many adults in the US are simply not having children, or having fewer of them. And an increasing number of those who do are instead sending them to private schools or homeschooling them.