Following years of tumbling California enrollment, vast expansion of a new grade before kindergarten is finally slowing the state’s enrollment decline — for now. Because public school funding is dependent on enrollment and attendance, adding thousands of new transitional kindergarten students, who tend to have the highest attendance rate of any grade, can substantially increase school funding.
“I am very grateful to see this exciting outlook for our earliest learners,” said California State Superintendent Tony Thurmond in a statement. “We know how important it is for support for every child to read by third grade, and a critical part of that effort is to make sure that our youngest students are supported to have healthy development in their early years. “
While there were 6,163,001 TK-12 students enrolled for 2019-2020 there were only 5,837,690 students enrolled for 2023-2024, a decline of 325,311, or a little less than the size of an entire statewide grade today. Though California teacher numbers have been released beyond the 2018-2019 school year, given that California is on an up to 15,600 teacher hiring spree to meet requirements for reduced student-to-teacher ratios, it appears likely the state’s number of teachers has continued to grow as its number of students declines.
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Author: Marty Kaufmann
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