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.
I really hope that means the private school enrollments are up.
Would love to see that number about 10X.
Time to pink slip some teachers union members.
If your child or grandchild is 17 years old you can pull out of Mickey Mouse Alaska high school and take practice tests for the nationally normed 12th grade GED.COM. Many parents and young adults have thanked me foor this advice. They deserve better than a 10th-11th grade diploma…
No matter how few students they have, or how many days they close the schools, the city will never give the taxpayers a rebate. They’ll just spend the savings on their own projects or administration.
The children whose parents are keeping them out of public school, they are so fortunate. But! When these children grown-up they will have more responsibility on them caring for their generation who couldn’t leave, that’s if Christ doesn’t come back while todays children are still under 18.
10,000 more students disenrolled, and the state legislature will seriously start talking about education vouchers because of the wealthier parents will be bugging their elect about needing more money for homeschooling or private schooling.
I would hope this would be reflective of an increase in private snd/or home education but Matsu Borough enrollment has increased by 4000 this year with also big population growth and booming construction. Just wondering if it reflects relocation.
It should be even lower and I hope it makes a difference right where it hurts $$$! This is what happens when parents are forced to go against their will and submit to policies and curriculum content not in line with their deeply held beliefs. Choice still exists and if I had a child in school right now, I’d make the same decision I did when my own were in 3rd grade.. Homeschool.
looks like 2020-2021 is labeled 2x.
You’re right. That chart is from the Dept. of Ed. – sd
What roll does the Anchorage Assembly, loaded to the eyeballs with self serving liberals , play in running off the moms and dads, tax paying families and therefore kids enrollment from Anchorage. schools?
The anchorage assembly has purposefully made our city into an unpleasant to raise your kids..
Were did the 4,519 kids go? AWAY — Far, far way and more loses on the horizon.
Home schooled ? The schools have turned into camps for creeps.
Fifty percent would have been more hopeful for mankind. More parents need to realize how the current school administration is corrupting their children which is essentially corrupting the future of mankind in America. The two parent working plan is a failure. The school district daycare plan is a failure. And the ranked 27th in education level in the world is dismally a failure. What are we paying for but our own selfish time, material and displaced responsibility when we send our kids off to these brainwashing factories?
Brian, the problem seems to be with snowflake culture. Which is the idea that the sun, the earth, and everything in the universe revolves around me. This gives people the confidence to say things like “brainwashing factories” in reference to public schools in America. When really, the curriculums are just scaled down versions of those in countries that rank much higher than we do. If anything, you should be pushing for us to go lower on that scale, since you think teaching basic science is somehow brainwashing.
George, none of what you list gives a reason for some of us enlightened ones calling it a brainwashing factory. If schools spent more time teaching the basics (math, English, science, history, etc) without teaching them how to hate white man and white man should feel guilty about his inherent hate of other ethnicities there wouldn’t have to be referred to as brainwashing factories. And the brainwashing extends from conservative hating teachers who continue to destroy conservative traditions in your homes, as can be seen by the division and disrespect between parents and their children. You have your head in the sand if you think they are just teaching “basic science “. Our teacher are from the same pool of people you are from, a pool which are self centered, self righteous, egotistical and Godless.
Yes, brainwashing.
I found a coloring page in my daughters book bag depicting Rosa Parks being beat down by a police officer. Rosa Parks was depicted as an old feeble lady standing off to the side of a 50’s era bus with her sewing machine in tow, lying on the ground with her hands above her head as though to block the billy club the screaming police officer was wielding in the air.
Simple economics. Job market has been shrinking and people are leaving. Ask the filling station attendant at the Carrs Eagle River fuel station what they see by way of 2021 traffic… or at one of the stations near the highway in Palmer.
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Alaska’s in a period of transition and moving forward unaware won’t be in anyone’s best interest. There are very few working today that were working here prior to pipeline construction however, that industry fed what had become normal for Alaska; wages that were high, costs that were high, and a general sense of prosperity compared to what someone that worked for wages might expect stateside. BP’s bailing out last year and half the workers being peeled off the roster when Hilcorp took over is a harbinger of Alaska’s tomorrow.
And kids are exponentially going into real education at home and privately. There is hope!
I think you have a mistake on the graph legend. The light blue line should be 2021-2022?
Yep. There are two lines labeled “2020-2021”.
Dept of Education error. – sd
Oh, the irony!
You published it. And then you failed to notice it. That is your second mistake. Then you failed to correct it. That is your 3rd mistake! (homage to Star trek episode “The Changeling”) The final scene between Kirk and Nomad is priceless. Check it out on Youtube.
Anchorage wastes a lot of money by having a school nurse in each grade school. Schools are close enough that a nurse could work at one school in the morning, drive 5 minutes to the next school. Some schools have 150 students or fewer. What business that size would have a full time nurse?
Ann, it’s called liability. Everything cost more because of lawsuits, so businesses create extravagant safety nets to prevent from being sued. It is the biggest reason for all cost increases of all industries, and that cost increase gets dumped on us, usually more than justified.
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In the case of this school nurse issue you mentioned, if a child was injured to the point of nurse care and he/she wasn’t present, some candy ass parent would seize the moment to become a millionaire. Welcome to a nation where feelings need safe zone and people need to be bubble wrapped to save them from themselves.
13 % decline in enrollment since 2017. How does that compare to their budget?
Let’s build a two story 30million dollar school by replacing Inlet elementary.
Let’s also build more condos and zero lot lines for the people that are building condos and zero lot lines! Just kidding. Remember 1984? Increasing the ASD Empire while our economy is declining seems about the same.
And I think we really need more blue-roof strip malls too. Unfortunately Pete Z is not around anymore.
Remember when he explained to the prosecutor that it is impossible to get $1 million in cash into a suitcase. He knew because he had tried it.
Good news is numbers might indicate Anchorage’s education industry is collapsing under its own weight.
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One hopes Eaglexit sponsors will completely separate their education system from the racket that is Anchorage’s education industry
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…which might be just what it takes to crash the industry and allow parents/taxpayers one more chance to rebuild it… without the union-management mob who turned it into what it is today.
I suggest a class-action lawsuit for a violation of the Religious Freedom Act. Any parent that removes their child from the Anchorage School District is being discriminated against by not receiving an equal amount of funding to educate their child as their religion requires. My religion is the Holy Order of Free Enterprise and Liberty.
Certain tax advantages as well.
My other suggestion is to contract with Walmart to run the ASD. Better. Cheaper. Capitalism at its best.
Think of all the money we will save!
I am surprised it is as high as it is. I suspect the word was given to hold back on the critical race theory nonsense for the time being. Eventually the language and social studies comrades will unleash the racial denigration and 1619 Project with a vengeance. The gaslighting will be off the scale as the “woke” at ASD declare that this program does not exist or that parents “don’t understand” what they are talking about.
Remember, in the State Foundation Formula there is a Hold Harmless factor. This states that if a district loses at least 5% of its students from the previous year, then it STILL gets 75% of the funding for those students it lost! So, the ASD is hoping to lose at least 5%, not fewer. In theory, a school district could lose ALL its students and still get 75% of its funding from the previous year!
Telling signs that can’t be ignored. AK is in decline and a healthy – productive tax base is moving onward, seeking real and meaningful opportunity and prosperity elsewhere.
Good Luck!
No.
What really happened is that thousands and thousands of Anchorage achool children have moved to the Valley with their families – and that trend will only accelerate in the years ahead.
A couple acres and a 2000 sqft house for the same price as an average condo in Anchorage.
Less crime.
Less traffic.
Way Less Chinese flu mass hysteria – no mask mandates, open bars and restaurants.
Lower property taxes.
Better city services – they actually keep our roads plowed when it snows!
Way, way LESS homeless.
No smell of urine or human excrement when you walk our streets.
Great schools with favorable demographics and some of the MOST conservative political leadership in the country.
A real sense of community – just look at the crowds at our football games versus yours.
It’s a Matsu Valley thing – you wouldn’t understand…
Thousands and thousands huh? That’s a lot.
The big cities here (Anchorage/Juneau/Fairbanks want to be like Seattle. Here in Juneau they want to be like Seattle. I say if you want to see your future go visit Seattle. Not the wealthy neighborhoods, but the downtown area and Chop zone. A real third world charm…boarded up buildings, creepy people, garbage all over, bad smells, homelessness, drug abuse, etc. Work on your agility, you need to leap and bound over the excrement and used syringes. If you have young children, keep them out of these school districts.
I enjoy reading MRAK for a variety of reasons. I am a political moderate and not religious, however I find value in diversity in opinions. I want to comment that I have a child that has a learning disability that is brilliant and self studies as a hobby. ASD did nothing to meet his unique learning needs this past year, though his 504 plan should have ensured that he received some specialized attention. I withdrew him from school this past year and he is so motivated to complete his GED. He is nearly 17 and because of his high intelligence I know this is the right move for him. I also now do not have to do the whole dance around mitigating the virus with and for him all year long at a school that has thousands of kids.
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