OHIO — Shifts in K-12 public school enrollment are being seen across all 50 states, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

What You Need To Know

  • Enrollment is expected to decline until the fall of 2031 in many states, including Ohio
  • Ohio is expected to see a 7% decline
  • Some students who chose an alternative education like homeschooling during the pandemic returned to public school while others have not 

Todd Cramer is a teaching professor and educational leadership coordinator at Bowling Green State University. He said Ohio’s public schools have struggled to recover their student populations they once saw at the beginning of the pandemic. However, this is not a surprise, he said.

“The birth rate between 2010 and 2020 was down by about 10%, so part of the enrollment decline was anticipated," he said.

Keeping that in mind, Cramer indicated that schools have already started making adjustments by looking at what will “have the least amount of impact on student achievement and student welfare.” That also includes assessing district budgets to maximize resources. 

Outside of reviewing all resources, Cramer acknowledged that in the future, it’ll be necessary for districts to put levies on ballots to manage what they can provide for public school students.

“Because communities have come to expect the high level of service and education from their public schools, and it's what our kids deserve, and so you'll see more and more school districts advocating for those additional funds," he said.

In the meantime, there is a concern that even with assessments of funds and levies as Cramer believes vouchers in the state still create a challenge. This, as he said, only a handful more of public school students took advantage of the vouchers this school year with the increase of accessibility.

“When you look at $400 million that was spent this year, additionally by the state of Ohio, on vouchers and only 3,000 new students, that’s $133,000 per student, and so I think there's a lot of work to be done to advocate that all students are well funded across State of Ohio," he said.