Miami-Dade schools' enrollment drops by more than 22,000 students in one year

MIAMI — Initial attendance numbers from both Broward and Miami-Dade schools indicate a significant decrease in enrollment in South Florida’s public school system in only one year.

In Miami-Dade, the number of enrolled students decreased from 335,474 last year to 313,220 at the start of this school year, a 6.6 percent loss, according to school board member Steve Gallon.

That means that approximately 22,254 fewer students are enrolled in Miami-Dade Public Schools this year than last.

In Broward, 236,548 students enrolled this year, a 4.6 percent decrease from 247,917 last year, according to Broward County Public Schools.

These numbers for Miami-Dade and Broward reflect enrollment in both traditional public school and charter schools, which are public schools that are operated by different entities.

Miami-Dade schools declined to comment on Tuesday regarding enrollment and said they would address the topic at a later date. Enrollment numbers don’t stabilize until September-October, according to the school district.

Numerous factors could be affecting Miami-Dade and Broward County public school enrollment numbers, including declining birth rates and population shifts.

Another factor that could be affecting enrollment in traditional public schools is the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration.

Both Miami-Dade and Broward are homes to large immigrant populations, some of whom are undocumented. According to a NYT report, since the beginning of the year, the United States has lost about 1.5 million immigrants as enforcement efforts have increased and immigrants have left the United States voluntarily. School districts are legally barred from tracking the immigration status of students, but they do track what languages students speak at home.

It was reported that last year, 181,077 students in Miami-Dade County Public Schools used Spanish as their primary language, or 59 percent of the total student population.

Gallon said he believes the drastic decrease in enrollment may be due to immigrant families being fearful of sending their children to school and the increasingly harsh economic conditions for families in Miami.

He also said that there was a decrease in the number of foreign students who have recently arrived in the United States from another country.

“I’ve been made aware of significant drops in enrollment in populations with high levels of immigrants,” said Gallon of the Miami-Dade numbers.

Another stress on enrollment in traditional public schools could be the availability of private school vouchers. The number of students in Miami and statewide receiving taxpayer-funded vouchers this year has not been released. But since Florida made private school vouchers available to all families regardless of income in 2023, the state budget for vouchers has snowballed from $1 billion to $4 billion.

That comes at the expense of public schools, according to Gallon and other proponents of traditional public schools.

“If the state of Florida is going to continue to commit to expanding school choice, it needs a separate appropriation to support that,” said Gallon.

Gallon said he is concerned that the current trend may create a two-tiered education system: one for students who are in the public school system that is rapidly being defunded and another for students whose parents can afford to pay the difference between private school tuition and the state-provided vouchers.

Antonio White, the president of Miami-Dade’s teachers’ union, United Teachers of Dade, said he is still working to understand the change in enrollment and the implications, but that he agrees that some of the change is from the increased funding of universal vouchers. He says that universal vouchers expand private schools “to the detriment of our traditional public schools.”

“We also cannot rule out the impact that the current administration’s immigration policies has had on enrollment,” added White.

The Archdiocese of Miami, in contrast to the public school systems, is celebrating its fifth year of increasing enrollment. A statement from the beginning of this month from the Archdiocese said there are now 37,000 students enrolled in the 65 Catholic schools under its umbrella. This is an increase of 800 more students than last year, and over half of the local Catholic schools have waiting lists.

School funding in Florida is based upon enrollment, and school districts depend upon the per student funding to pay teachers, maintain facilities, and fund innovative magnet programs, which attract students to public schools.

The numbers released by Miami-Dade are preliminary but do indicate that the school district may have to begin to develop a strategy to maximize school district property. Miami-Dade public schools is the largest landowner in the county.

In Broward, the discussions on how to deal with the decline in the public school student population have been ongoing for several years. Last year, one school in Broward was closed, and several were consolidated.

The future is uncertain for public schools, according to experts. But the Florida legislature has made one thing clear: they will continue to fund scholarships for students to attend private schools, even if that means a slow decrease in funding for traditional public schools.