Mississippi is losing public school students. Where are they going?

By Devna Bose | Originally published by Mississippi Today

Mississippi has lost nearly 70,000 public school students since the state’s student population started its downturn in 2013. 

The vast majority of Mississippi’s school districts, 113, have seen enrollment declines — some as much as 40%.

Some experts link the falling public school enrollment to the state’s overall population loss. 

If districts continue to lose students, their funding will decline, too. In 2024, Mississippi adopted a new public school funding formula that ties money to student enrollment. A section of the student funding formula included a “hold-harmless” provision, which prevented districts with declining enrollment from being hit with significant cuts. That protection expires in July 2027. 

Kymberly Wiggins, the Mississippi Department of Education’s chief operating officer, said every district will then have to live with their “true” allocation, which may be a wake-up call. She said the Legislature has an opportunity to adjust the funding formula in 2028 and minimize enrollment-related budget decreases. 

But Tyler Hansford, superintendent of Union Public School District and president of the state superintendents’ association, is worried about what’s going to happen in the meantime, as federal pandemic relief money dries up and the state’s hold-harmless deadline approaches.

“To really cure budget shortfalls, just about the only way is cutting personnel,” he said.

And if that doesn’t work, Hansford knows what comes next: consolidations and school closures. “I would think that would be unavoidable,” he said. 

Those possibilities are already becoming a reality for some districts. 

Leake County schools have lost about a fifth of their enrollment over the past decade. In February, district leaders announced that two high schools will be consolidated at the end of this school year. Former graduates and school employees told Mississippi Today they believe the move is necessary and overdue. 

Another case is Leland, a Delta town that peaked in population at 6,667 in 1980. Now, fewer than 4,000 people call it home. 

The public school district’s population parallels that of the town. Leland schools have lost about 300 students, a third of their enrollment, since the 2013-14 school year. Superintendent Jessie King is frank about what could happen if Leland schools lose more money. 

“We may have to cut staff,” he said. “That’s definitely a concern.”

Schools have fixed costs such as building maintenance and bus driver salaries, said Tara Moon, a researcher at FutureEd, an education think tank. But if they don’t have the same amount of money coming in, it can present challenges.

“They need to figure out how to close the gap in their budget,” she said. 

Often, the first casualty is teachers. 

Superintendents face tough decisions

When teachers retire in Philadelphia, they may not be replaced.

That’s because a third of the student population has evaporated in the past 10 years, and Superintendent Shannon Whitehead has to cut costs where she can. 

Philadelphia’s population dropped from 7,477 people in 2010 to 7,118 in 2020. City schools have seen steeper declines in enrollment. 

Philadelphia Public School District has lost nearly 40% of its student population since the 2013-14 school year, dropping from 1,224 students to 750. 

The factors for the enrollment loss aren’t clear. Some students are moving out of city limits and attending nearby Neshoba County schools, Whitehead said. Students often transfer to nearby districts. 

What’s resulted is a shrinking staff and growing class sizes. Whitehead said she’s dissolving roles now to prevent future layoffs. 

King, superintendent of Leland schools, is looking to trim costs, too. One option he’s considering is participating in the state’s virtual teacher program, with Jackson-based instructors teaching online classes across Mississippi.

Jackson Public Schools is losing students at the third-highest rate of Mississippi districts. JPS enrollment declined by half, about 13,000 students, since the 2013-14 school year. Skeletal buildings of former schools sit unused across Jackson. District spokespeople declined to comment on the district’s shrinking enrollment.

Will Russell, superintendent of Leake County School District, said he decided to “realign” the district’s high schools because of resource disparities tied to enrollment declines. He said he avoids the word “consolidation” because it evokes emotional responses in his community.

One school didn’t have a football team, for example, because of low enrollment. The county high school needs a chemistry teacher. Teachers are paid on the same salary schedule at both schools, but classes at one school only have six or seven students, compared to at least a dozen more at the other. 

“If anybody wants to say that we’re wasting money, they would be right,” Russell said. 

Grace Breazeale, a K-12 education researcher at policy advocacy organization Mississippi First, said that because population and enrollment declines will likely continue, district leaders should consider consolidating schools or districts.

But some district leaders aren’t willing to have those conversations. For years, there have been rumors about consolidating Philadelphia Public Schools and Neshoba County School District, but city school alumni have pushed back.

“Our community is not interested in that at all,” Whitehead said. “We feel as though we’re strong enough.”

Few districts are growing

Oxford School District is one of the state’s few districts bucking the declining enrollment trend. The 4,649-student district is the fastest-growing in the state at an increase of 16% over the past 10 years. No other district comes close, Mississippi Today’s data analysis shows. 

Superintendent Bradley Roberson said the district’s growth is tied to the city’s. District officials have also worked hard to make Oxford schools parents’ first choice, he said.

District leaders have spent $44 million in recent years to upgrade facilities and expand Oxford’s early education program, course offerings and extracurricular programs — investments for which Roberson credits the strong tax base in the city that’s home to the University of Mississippi. 

Local support also helps explain the growth of schools in Petal, a suburb of Hattiesburg with 4,307 students that is the second-fastest growing district in the state.

Petal schools’ enrollment has dipped some years and increased by 150 students the next, growing modestly over the past decade. Still, Dillon is keeping an eye on the state’s waning student population.

“We’ve got to figure out ways to reach families and students,” he said. 

Students who left schools during the pandemic haven’t returned

Lower birth rates and immigration trends have driven national student enrollment declines for years. The pandemic accelerated those losses, said Thomas Dee, a professor at Stanford University who studies education policy. Families increasingly turned to other education options like homeschooling.

“I expected a bounce back,” Dee said. “But that didn’t really happen.”

Homeschool enrollment in Mississippi dramatically rose during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Census data shows an 11.6% increase in homeschooled students in Mississippi between May and September 2020, more than twice the increase nationwide, said Breazeale of Mississippi First. Those numbers have held steady.

In other states, new residents help offset the loss of public school students to homeschooling. But that’s not the case in Mississippi, said Jake McGraw, director of Working Together Mississippi’s Rethink MS initiative, which aims to find solutions to the state’s population decline.

Experts say converging state-specific issues such as Mississippi’s outmigration and brain drain of skilled workers and national population trends such as declining birth rates  have resulted in a steady trickle of students leaving public schools. 

The losses come even as the state’s public education system draws praise for its success with fourth grade reading amid a nationwide literacy crisis. 

Education quality is not a driving factor that attracts people to a specific community and incentivizes them to stay, McGraw said. The state’s economic opportunities aren’t keeping up with the education system’s progress, which means Mississippi’s education system might be training people to leave, he said. 
“An education in Mississippi now opens doors all over the country,” McGraw said. “That education also shuts doors in Mississippi … What we’re doing is just developing students for jobs that don’t exist in the state.”

This article was originally published by Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Source: Original Article