Significant Decline of Student Enrollment Due to Changes in Economy
San Jose Unified School District has recently been shrinking due to dropping student numbers in the 2023-24 school year.
By Jisela Negrete
San Jose Unified School District has recently been shrinking due to dropping student numbers in the 2023-24 school year.
By Jisela Negrete
For the past six years, the San José Unified School District has seen a decrease in enrollment across its schools.
For the 2019-20 school year, Pioneer High School welcomed 419 freshman students, however by the 2022-23 school year, the class of 2023 had dropped to about 385 students with 34 students leaving in the span of four years. The class of 2025 will also have a decrease in the number of students enrolled, with only 377 students returning next year out of the current 404 students.
On average, Pioneer loses about 20 students per year, per class as the cost of living has continued to increase in the Bay Area.
“I think the declining enrollment that schools across not only San Jose Unified but across all of Santa Clara County, in fact all of the Bay Area, have experienced over the last, I would say, five or six years,” said San José Teachers Association president Patrick Bernhardt. “San Jose Unified, I think about five or six years ago, had more than 30,000 students. I think we probably topped out around 33,000 students. Today, San Jose Unified has about 25,000 students.”
A variable that is causing the massive decrease of enrollment is the housing and financial crisis, along with the quick rise in inflation. This has caused house prices and rent in Silicon Valley to soar. With prices being so high, it makes it very difficult to afford housing.
“We're seeing more families move out of the Bay Area to other parts of the state and other parts of the country. We are also seeing a declining family size and that's linked to the cost of living,” said Bernhardt. “If you have a larger family that may be, you know, both parents work and you are there supporting, you know, two or three or four children, that may be more than their incomes can support in the Bay Area, where it might be easier for a family with only one or two children to remain in the Bay Area. The effect of that is we're seeing a declining family size, which means fewer children at school.”
California hands out funds that depend on the amount of enrollment in schools, however, this amount varies per district. In the case of the San José Unified School District, property taxes are significantly higher than enrollment, so the district receives funds because of its high property tax.
“This has been a trend for a couple of years. A lot of it has to do with the prices of housing and things like that. But one of the big changes that we have is that we've become a basic aid district,” said Principal Brad Craycroft.
By being a basic aid district, SJUSD receives their funding from property taxes, as opposed to a “revenue limit” model which the district used to operate under, in which the state had to provide funding that the tax base did not. A basic aid district’s funding rises with property taxes, and that increase in funding goes into school budgets.
Physics teacher Colleen McDonough, has noticed the change of students enrolled for 2023-24, with the fluctuation with her class sizes.
“(The decrease in enrollment) will be more evident next year because the class sizes will be smaller. That's actually better for education and better for students to have small class sizes,” said McDonough.
With the ongoing decline of student enrollment, the campus’s master schedule will also be affected. Fewer students means fewer teachers are required at the school and the effects of decreased enrollment will show years to come. This hasn’t directly affected Pioneer yet, but the decrease of students in SJUSD elementary has started to affect the class sizes.
“The most immediate effect is if there are fewer students at Pioneer, then there will be fewer teachers at Pioneer, because the number of teachers that are allocated to a given site is dependent upon the number of students that the school site has,” said Bernhardt. “So that will affect all students in the long run by potentially decreasing the number of teachers, it might reduce the number of sections of individual classes that are available, and at a certain point, it might eventually cause the reduction of certain classes.”
For the 2019-20 school year, Pioneer High School welcomed 419 freshman students, however by the 2022-23 school year, the class of 2023 had dropped to about 385 students with 34 students leaving in the span of four years. The class of 2025 will also have a decrease in the number of students enrolled, with only 377 students returning next year out of the current 404 students.
On average, Pioneer loses about 20 students per year, per class as the cost of living has continued to increase in the Bay Area.
“I think the declining enrollment that schools across not only San Jose Unified but across all of Santa Clara County, in fact all of the Bay Area, have experienced over the last, I would say, five or six years,” said San José Teachers Association president Patrick Bernhardt. “San Jose Unified, I think about five or six years ago, had more than 30,000 students. I think we probably topped out around 33,000 students. Today, San Jose Unified has about 25,000 students.”
A variable that is causing the massive decrease of enrollment is the housing and financial crisis, along with the quick rise in inflation. This has caused house prices and rent in Silicon Valley to soar. With prices being so high, it makes it very difficult to afford housing.
“We're seeing more families move out of the Bay Area to other parts of the state and other parts of the country. We are also seeing a declining family size and that's linked to the cost of living,” said Bernhardt. “If you have a larger family that may be, you know, both parents work and you are there supporting, you know, two or three or four children, that may be more than their incomes can support in the Bay Area, where it might be easier for a family with only one or two children to remain in the Bay Area. The effect of that is we're seeing a declining family size, which means fewer children at school.”
California hands out funds that depend on the amount of enrollment in schools, however, this amount varies per district. In the case of the San José Unified School District, property taxes are significantly higher than enrollment, so the district receives funds because of its high property tax.
“This has been a trend for a couple of years. A lot of it has to do with the prices of housing and things like that. But one of the big changes that we have is that we've become a basic aid district,” said Principal Brad Craycroft.
By being a basic aid district, SJUSD receives their funding from property taxes, as opposed to a “revenue limit” model which the district used to operate under, in which the state had to provide funding that the tax base did not. A basic aid district’s funding rises with property taxes, and that increase in funding goes into school budgets.
Physics teacher Colleen McDonough, has noticed the change of students enrolled for 2023-24, with the fluctuation with her class sizes.
“(The decrease in enrollment) will be more evident next year because the class sizes will be smaller. That's actually better for education and better for students to have small class sizes,” said McDonough.
With the ongoing decline of student enrollment, the campus’s master schedule will also be affected. Fewer students means fewer teachers are required at the school and the effects of decreased enrollment will show years to come. This hasn’t directly affected Pioneer yet, but the decrease of students in SJUSD elementary has started to affect the class sizes.
“The most immediate effect is if there are fewer students at Pioneer, then there will be fewer teachers at Pioneer, because the number of teachers that are allocated to a given site is dependent upon the number of students that the school site has,” said Bernhardt. “So that will affect all students in the long run by potentially decreasing the number of teachers, it might reduce the number of sections of individual classes that are available, and at a certain point, it might eventually cause the reduction of certain classes.”