In 2017, Anchorage schools had 47,464 students enrolled. This year, the count is down — way down.
Only 42,945 students were enrolled as of Aug. 30, 2021, in the 10th day of school report. It’s a loss of 4,519 students over four years.
Schools in Alaska are awarded state dollars per student, based on enrollment figures that are reported in October, and so the final enrollment numbers are not set. But the district had projected it would have 45,979, and instead saw a 6.6 percent drop from what it projected for this year, a sign that October’s enrollment will be lower than expected as well.
ASD official student enrollment peaked at 50,024 students in the 2003-2004 school year. Since then, ASD has added more than a million square feet of new schools. In simple terms, in 18 years Anchorage has lost nearly 8,000 kids — but added space for 6,000 more.
The investment in facilities has been at a time when Alaska has dropped to 49th in the U.S. for 4th grade reading scores for upper/middle income non-minority student.
