WWCSD Declining Enrollment

Michigan public schools, including Wayne-Westland, have been dealing with declining enrollment since the early 2000s. Wayne-Westland's enrollment dropped by 3,200 students between 2012 and 2023, resulting in nearly $30 million less in revenue. The pandemic also had a similar effect on enrollment in 2020, but it stabilized in 2021-2023. Declining enrollment has been a long-term issue for Wayne-Westland, but not unique in the past three years. In this slide, we take a closer look at the effect of declining enrollment on district revenues. And most people understand that almost all Michigan public schools have been fighting the problem of declining enrollment really since the early 2000s, since about 2003 or 2004. In Wayne-Westland's case, you can see that in 2012, enrollment was 12,600 students and by 2023, this had dropped by 3,200 some students. When you do the math and you compare the 3,226 fewer students times the per-pupil foundation allowance of 2023, that means on a relative basis that in 2023, Wayne-Westland received nearly $30 million less in revenue in 2023 than it did in 2012. While this was gradual and while many districts dealt with the same problem, it is worth the time to review and to understand that there has been a long-term aggregate effect of declining enrollment on Michigan public schools. And if you look on this slide, particularly following 2020, you can see very specifically the effect of the pandemic on enrollment in Wayne-Westland as it did have a similar effect on pretty much all Michigan public schools at that time and then has stabilized in 21 through 23. The one thing we can take from this is that over the long-term, declining enrollment has certainly been a problem for Wayne-Westland, but it hasn't been that unique of a problem over the last three years as this data tells us.