The Can’t and Won’t Problem

“School Districts Can’t Stand Still: 2 Strategies Can Help Them Survive and Thrive.”

This is the title of an article Robin Lake, executive director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education, and Travia Pillow, spokesperson for the Texas Education Freedom Accounts program at the Texas Comptroller’s Office, wrote last week for The 74. Here are highlights from that article:

“America’s school districts are operating in a very different reality than they were even a decade ago.”

“Student demographics are shifting so that in just six years, districts have lost 2 million students nationwide. Meanwhile, charter schools gained about half a million, private school added thousands more, and homeschooling rates remain higher than pre-pandemic levels. These shifts look different depending on where you live, but almost no district is immune. The result: Traditional district schools are serving a shrinking share of a shrinking market.”

“In many states, options that used to be considered fringe alternatives are now much more accessible. Policy shifts favor charter schools and open enrollment across district lines; and education savings accounts and tax credit scholarships incentivize alternative school options.”

“This means the traditional assumption that most students in a district’s boundaries will attend its school no longer holds. It also means districts need to rethink how they can continue to successfully serve their students and communities. And it means that it is more important than ever to think about how districts and states serve students with disabilities so they don’t fall through the cracks.”

“Enrollment declines create immediate pressure. Districts still have to maintain buildings, transportation systems and central office functions even as student numbers fall. Political realities often make it difficult to close under-enrolled schools. And districts must continue to meet legal obligations, especially for students with disabilities.

“Over time, this leads to hard tradeoffs. Resources shift away from classrooms just to keep systems running. Meanwhile, families with the most flexibility are often the first to leave. That can concentrate marginalized students and students with disabilities in the schools with the fewest resources and the least capacity to adapt. Staffing becomes harder. Financial strain grows. Academic outcomes can suffer.”

“Left unchecked, this becomes a downward spiral that, in some places, ends in state intervention or financial insolvency. States will increasingly face a choice: develop a new playbook for districts or manage the consequences of decline.”

“For decades, districts operated as vertically integrated systems. They ran the schools, delivered the services and served nearly every student in their area.”

“That model no longer reflects reality. Today’s districts face two distinct but connected challenges.”

“First, they must compete for students by offering schools and programs that families will actively choose. That means understanding what families want and building options that respond to those preferences.”

“Second, they must support a broader ecosystem of public education, finding ways to serve students, families and schools beyond those they directly operate.”

“Districts that succeed will do both.”

But most districts can’t and won’t do both, and therefore most will fail – especially those serving black, brown, and poor kids.

Traditional schools have never been good at meeting the needs of the young learners and their families who should be considered clients of the organization. Instead, our K-12 system sets the agenda, and then expects each young learner and their families to fall in order and follow the prescribed plan.

The traditional school system is not built to individualize and personalize. It’s built to sort and select.

Furthermore, our traditional K-12 school system does not play in the proverbial sandbox well with other providers, like health care, early childhood, before- and after-school enterprises, and the like. So, Lake and Pillow’s call for our public schools to support a broader ecosystem of public education, one that involves out of school partners, is a bridge too far for most districts.

Instead, K-12 districts, if they work with other providers at all, expect those providers to fall in line as the school district takes the lead in mandating the activities of their young learners and their families.

Even if traditional school districts wanted to change, the amount of time it would take to change how they do the business of teaching and learning would be incremental at best.

We don’t need incremental change. We need “breakthrough” change.

Because most school districts can’t and won’t do what Lake and Pillow suggest, we will continue to see the exodus of families leaving traditional schools for alternative learning organizations like privates, homeschool, learning pods, and microschools.

America has lost over one million public school students already dating back to 2020.

Sobering news for our current K-12 school districts, but maybe hopeful news for those young learners looking to escape sucky schools.

Til tomorrow. SVB