JPS has drastically declined in enrollment over the past 10 years. See how much

In the past 10 years, Jackson Public Schools has seen total enrollment decrease by 41.3% — one of the leading reasons why the JPS school board voted to shutter 11 schools and merge two after the 2023-2024 school year, school officials said.

During a school board meeting Tuesday evening, The JPS Board of Trustees and JPS Superintendent Errick Greene listened to an enrollment update presented by Faith Strong, the school district's director of data management and enrollment services.

Strong presented total enrollment numbers for the past ten school years, including enrollment in pre-k schools, elementary schools, middle schools and high schools. She also presented the enrollment numbers at the beginning of the year versus the end of the year. The numbers are below:

Since 2013, enrollment has declined in JPS's elementary schools by 48%, declined in middle schools by 47% and declined in high schools by 24%. Only Pre-K enrollment has seen a 21% increase.

Of the district's 30 elementary schools, only four elementary schools have seen an increase in enrollment in the past five years: Obama Elementary School, 12%, Bates Elementary School, 25%, Walton Elementary School, 6%, and Shirley Elementary School, 3%

Shirley is one of the 11 schools closing in 2024. Obama is consolidating with Northwest Jackson International Baccalaureate Middle School in 2025.

Of JPS's nine middle schools, only Blackburn Middle School, 27%, and Thomas Cardozo Middle School, 34%, have seen enrollment increases in the past five years.

And of the district's high schools, only Callaway High School, 2%, and Lanier High School, 62%, have seen enrollment increases in the past five years.

Because of JPS's continued decline in enrollment, Strong said they will continue to monitor the numbers in case there is more need for additional school closures. She also defended the school board's decision to close schools after this school year.

"As a district we will continue to closely monitor our enrollment data in the next three to five years to assess and see if there is a potential need to close more schools," Strong said. "However, it is crucial to acknowledge that something had to be done this year because of our drastic decline in enrollment over the past 10 years."

Decreased enrollment affects funding

Official enrollment counts are based on students enrolled in the district before Oct. 1 and reported to the Mississippi Department of Education. The state then provides district funding based on the beginning of year enrollment numbers.

"Any student that comes to us after Oct. 1, we do not receive funding for them," Strong said.

Funding has been an issue the past three years for JPS as the district has ended the school year with more students than they reported in the beginning of the year.

Last year, the district had 46 more students at the end of the school year than at the beginning of the year. School year 2021-2022 saw the district end the school year with 311 more students than it started with and school year 2020-2021 saw 116 more students at the end of the school year than at the beginning.

"We've got more scholars, glad to have them, but we don't have the resources to follow them. So that's problematic if they're coming after the official count," Greene said.

Board members asked Greene what could be done about the funding issue, but the superintendent said that is a question for the Mississippi Legislature as they are the only ones who can enact laws to change the way school district's get funded.

"It's absolutely a legislative issue," Greene said. "You expect me to provide the teachers and the lights and the books and all the things regardless of when they show up. They show up the last day of school, you expect me to have staffing there … All that being said, there's got to be some truing up of the money when the scholars move around. It's tough for us, so I can imagine it would be tough for the state and the auditors and treasury and whatnot, but that's the work."

Competition with Charter Schools

In 2013, former Gov. Phil Bryant signed into law the Mississippi Charter Schools Act of 2013. In 2015, the first of the state's now 10 operating charters opened their doors, according to the educational nonprofit Mississippi First.

Enrollment numbers on the city's private school's was not presented, but Strong said private schools, other school districts around the state and even home schooling also play a role in students leaving the district.

Six out of the state's 10 charter schools operate in Jackson: Midtown Public Charter School, Reimagine Prep Middle School, Ambition Prep, Smilow Collegiate, Smilow Prep and Revive Collegiate.

For the 2023-2024 school year, those six charter schools combine for a total enrollment of 2,783 students, according to Strong's presentation.

Here is a look a comparison of JPS enrollment and charter school enrollment in Jackson since 2015:

And here is a look at the number of transfers from JPS to charter schools and vice-versa since 2015:

Rachel Canter, executive director of Mississippi First, said that charter schools play no part in the decline of enrollment for Jackson Public Schools.

"The answer is no," Canter said. "Jackson Public Schools have been losing students much more rapidly than the charter schools have been growing."

But during the meeting, Board Member Barbara Hillliard, who represents Ward 4, asked how JPS can minimize the amount of students potentially attending or transferring to other schools outside of the district.

Greene had a simple answer:

"Be better," he said. "The better we are, the higher we perform, the better our buildings are, the more stable our staffing is, the more we provide in terms of some of the creative programming that you cannot find other places … those are ways that we can continue to arrest the decline that we see and prove to folks that you've got some really good options here. You can choose to go some place else, to a charter school or a private school or move out of the city. But we want folks to see that they've got good options here."

Hilliard also brought up the fact that Jackson's population as a whole has declined over the years, which plays a part in decline in enrollment. In 2013, the city's population was 172,970, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Today, Jackson's population is 149,761.

"If the parents are moving out of the district, then naturally the students (are moving to)," Hilliard said.

Board Member Mitch McGuffey, who represents Ward 7, said the district needs to do a better job of mass marketing the good qualities and special programs JPS offers. The city's charter and private schools aren't acquiring students because they are better schools, McGuffey said, but because they are doing a better job marketing themselves than JPS.

"I can tell you if you live in Belhaven you got hit with at least four consecutive months of registrations and offers from certain charters. That's how they're getting kids," McGuffey said. "It's not because anybody looked at data and said, 'I really want to be a part of that.' I think we've got to really dial in on how we message, and I'm not talking about featuring schools. I'm talking about featuring the district."

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: JPS has seen a major enrollment decline in past 10 years.