RI Loses Thousands of Students Each Year

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Stephen Beale, GoLocalProv News Editor

 

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Rhode Island is losing more than 3,000 school-aged children a year, a trend that could dramatically reshape the state educational landscape for years to come, education leaders say.

 

Between 2005 and 2009, the number of students in kindergarten through the senior year of high school dropped by 12,909, according to annual data compiled by the U.S. Census Bureau and analyzed by GoLocalProv. That comes out to a little over 3,000 school-age children each year—equivalent to the size of an average school district in Rhode Island. If the population decline were evenly spread throughout the 36 districts in the Ocean State, each would lose more than 300 students a year—a number comparable to the enrollment of some elementary schools.

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“The total number—it’s quite a lot,” said Tim Duffy, executive director of the Rhode Island Association of School Committees.

 

The steep drop-off in students will force dramatic changes in school districts across the state, Duffy and other experts predict. “You’re going to see school districts making a lot of critical decisions,” Duffy said. “The reality is that districts are going to have to get a lot leaner.”

The shrinking school population mirrors a broader trend: the Ocean State is getting older.

Between 2000 and 2010, the number of youth and children 19 and under dropped by 20,858, according to the latest data from the U.S. Census. During the same period, Rhode Island gained almost as many residents who were 60 and older—20,427, to be exact.

Education transformation

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State Education Commissioner Deborah Gist said declining enrollments are a factor in the state’s strategic plan for transforming education. Gist told GoLocalProv that the plan seeks to “ensure that we invest our resources wisely to save taxpayer dollars and to support student achievement.”

 

One sign of the changing times: the new education funding formula, which calibrates state aid to district enrollment levels. As a result, state aid “will rise or fall along with changes in district enrollment patterns,” Gist said.

To cope with the all changes, districts will have to become more creative. “Districts with declining enrollments will need to consider how to use innovations and cost efficiencies so as to provide a world-class education to their students, even with less state aid,” Gist said.

The change in state aid runs into the hundreds of thousands for some districts. For example, in fiscal year 2012, the Bristol-Warren School District will see $271,000 less in state education funds. South Kingstown will have to make do with $366,000 less. (Click here for the complete breakdown for all school districts.)

Over the long term, the decline in students could have widespread consequences for school districts, from fewer extracurricular clubs to the closure of schools, experts say. “The problem is no one wants to see their neighborhood school close,” Duffy said.

A recent case in point: the controversial closure of four elementary schools in Providence, which met with stiff resistance from some local groups and teachers. “That can be very disruptive at the community level because parents tend to be involved in the current local school they’ve been counting on sending their kids too,” said Brown University sociologist John Logan, an expert on the U.S. Census.

School closures could come hand in hand with teacher layoffs or hiring freezes, Duffy added.

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Gist backs consolidation as a solution

 

Gist told GoLocalProv that consolidation could be the solution for some districts. “As enrollments continue to decline in some areas in Rhode Island, school districts may further explore consolidation of services as a promising way to achieve additional efficiencies and to promote student achievement,” she said.

University of Rhode Island economist Leonard Lardaro says the time for consolidating school services—as well as regionalizing districts—is long overdue. Lardaro says that 36 school districts is far too many for a state the size of Rhode Island—leading to an unnecessary duplication of services. “How much longer can Rhode Island sustain its redundancy?” Lardaro said. “We’re not even the size of counties in other states. We’re acting like Alaska or Texas.”

“When does the alarm finally ring?” he said.

Outright regionalization of school districts would entail creating new super districts, which are comprised of several communities. That not only faces constitutional hurdles but is opposed by some local municipal leaders who worry the new multi-town districts disadvantage smaller communities when it comes to decisions about how to spend money, said state Senator Frank Ciccone, D-Providence, who proposed regionalization in 2009, but pulled back from the idea after he spoke with local officials.

But short of regionalization, consolidation of services and positions is an attractive alternative, Duffy said. For example, he said a group of northwestern school districts—Smithfield, North Smithfield, Lincoln, Burrillville—are looking at consolidating some administrative positions. He said it could make sense, for example, for districts to share one technology coordinator.

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He said other districts, such as those on Aquidneck Island, could also share an elementary school without having to formally regionalize their school districts. “There’s nothing in state law that could prevent that,” Duffy said. “I think that’s a viable option instead of merging districts.

 

On the chopping block: Extracurricular activities, athletics

On a statewide level, the school committee association is studying the idea of creating one payroll service for all 36 school districts—instead of each having their own payroll department, Duffy said. The Rhode Island Department of Education has already made strides in this direction by launching a single transportation service for busing students from one district to another—as is the case sometimes for special ed students. “I think the next step is to move to intra-district transportation needs,” Duffy said.

But school closures and consolidation of services may not be the only change Rhode Island public education sees. Some districts may have to cut theater, band, music, athletics, and other extracurricular programs—especially if they do not close schools to trim costs, Duffy and Ciccone said. In some districts, such cuts have already taken place or been proposed. “They cut a lot of the social activity programs that blend into the academic life of a student,” Ciccone said.

And, of course, all this won’t be happening in a vacuum. Instead, it will be taking place at a time when districts are facing the reductions in state aid, new cuts in federal funding and reimbursements, and soaring unfunded retirement liabilities, Duffy said. He said school committees are especially worried about the consequences of inaction on pension reform this year. “The bills going forward are going to be astronomical,” Duffy said.

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‘Districts in for a rough ride’

 

“I think districts and cities and towns are really in for a rough ride,” Duffy added.

He said teacher contracts make the process all the more difficult for districts, because virtually all salary and benefits are subject to collective bargaining, as well as teacher placements. That imposes additional restrictions on districts and limits their ability to adapt, Duffy said. (The leaders of the two statewide teacher unions did not respond to a request for comment.)

Gist said the Department of Education has been “deeply involved in creating tools and processes” to help districts support student achievement, despite the decline in enrollments.

“For example, in the past two years RIDE has implemented statewide systems of transportation, purchase of supplies, and food services, as well as new school-construction regulations—all of which have helped districts save money or direct more funds toward instruction,” Gist said.

One bright side to all this: “The more efficient you are, the more efficient your use of taxpayer dollars and that’s a good thing,” Duffy said.

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