Unlike Wake, it looks like Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools are shrinking in size this year.
According to today's Charlotte Observer, CMS reported having 133,664 students in K-12, down almost 400 from last year. The figure is based on enrollment for Tuesday, which was the 20th day of classes for Charlotte, Wake and most school districts in the state.
School districts use 20th-day totals to determine the official enrollment for the school year.
No word yet on when Wake will announce a Day 20 number. But based on Day 10, Wake is still growing as it then had 139,362 students, a gain of 1,656 from last year.
Comments
Schools
Fri, 09/25/2009 - 05:26 — mommy59Wake schools are up because some can no longer afford private schools!
Just way of looking at it.
Plight of Winter Babies
Thu, 09/24/2009 - 10:13 — user12345http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125356566517528879.html?mod=yhoofront
(In case you missed this one)
Children born in the winter months already have a few strikes against them. Study after study has shown that they test poorly, don't get as far in school, earn less, are less healthy, and don't live as long as children born at other times of year. Researchers have spent years documenting the effect and trying to understand it.
In 2007, Mr. Hungerman was doing research on sibling behavior when he noticed that children in the same families tend to be born at the same time of year. Meanwhile, Ms. Buckles was examining the economic factors that lead to multiple births, and coming across what looked like a relationship between mothers' education levels and when children were born.
"I was just playing around with the data and getting an unexpected result," Ms. Buckles recalls of the tendency that less educated mothers were having children in winter.
Other researchers have suggested other reasons for season-of-birth differences. Maybe vitamin D was playing a role, for example, because children born in the winter were getting less sunshine in early life. Or maybe being put in the same school year with children who are mostly younger makes children born in the winter less socially mature. A study published in the medical journal Acta Pædriatica in April found that children born in the winter have higher birth-defect rates and suggested it was due to a higher concentration of pesticides in surface water in the spring and summer, when the children were conceived.
Ms. Buckles and Mr. Hungerman aren't entirely sure yet. Perhaps it has to do with fluctuations in employment; married women tend to conceive when unemployment is higher, research has shown. They also speculate it might be due to cooler temperatures in springtime, which don't adversely affect the fertility of poor parents, who may not have air conditioning, like hot temperatures do. Or they wonder if there might even be a "prom" effect at work. January is, after all, about nine months after many of those soirees.
So neighborhoods schools are
Thu, 09/24/2009 - 09:35 — user12345So neighborhoods schools are chasing people away?
Don't tell me you are that
Thu, 09/24/2009 - 10:06 — changewcpssDon't tell me you are that ignorant. What a stretch and typical stirring the pot.
Hmm..
Thu, 09/24/2009 - 10:04 — Bob_SconceMore likely the financial crisis hit Charlotte exceptionally hard and a lot of people formerly employed by Wachovia (and, to a lesser extent, BoA) have moved away.
Wow
Thu, 09/24/2009 - 09:29 — supportwcpssEven among the worst economic time since the Depression we still gained what equates to two elementary schools worth of kids.
Your point is? Charlotte
Thu, 09/24/2009 - 10:04 — CaryCurmudgeonYour point is?
Charlotte is one of the banking capitals of the US. With the acquisition of Wachovia and other huge banking employers going under there, thousands have lost their jobs and been forced to seek employment elsewhere. I know two recent Charlotte transplants who moved here. Unemployment MAY be driving down Charlotte Enrollment.
Is your point that somehow our "better" school system has kept more people employed, or are you suggesting that the reproductive rate in Wake County has been higher than Mecklenberg?
And we Have Open Seat that Equates to 6 ES
Thu, 09/24/2009 - 09:35 — JanisTangoNot a problem...we have ES's that are under utilized that equate to a lot more than that. We have 800 open seats in 6 North Raleigh schools alone!