(Los Angeles, CA) — The Los Angeles Unified School District is seeing its steepest decline in enrollment in nearly two decades. According to data provided by L.A. Unified that will be presented to the school board today, more than 27-thousand students have left the district since last year. That’s a decline of close to six-percent. The shortfall is three times what planners in the nation’s second-largest school district had predicted. Officials report the cause of lower enrollment rates vary, but include: high cost of living and limits on immigration, but said the pandemic’s influence is difficult to pinpoint and measure.
In 2019, the LAUSD got about $16,000 per student from the state (see below). If that payment is the same (could it be more?) in 2021, losing 27,000 students could cost LAUSD $432,000,000. And the teachers just got a 5% raise.
https://californiapolicycenter.org/la-school-district-hard-reset/