From Memphis, Philadelphia and Mesa, Ariz., to economically ravaged Rust Belt cities in the Midwest, student enrollment at some of the nation’s largest public school districts has declined dramatically over the past five years.
In Nashville, however, a projected 81,000 Metro students are expected to head to class for the first day of school this Wednesday, Aug. 1, the district’s highest figure of any year since 1976. It’s the culmination of a 16 percent Metro student population rise over the past decade.
In a story that generated widespread discussion among educators, The New York Times recently reported that enrollment at approximately half the nation’s 100 most populated school districts plummeted during a five-year timeframe that largely coincides with the nation’s Great Recession. The report attributed some of the decreases to the mass exodus of residents from cities such as Cleveland and Detroit.
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