Public schools still look much the way they did around 1910, and as enrollment falls, Jason Willis wants states to help districts rethink them rather than simply shrink them.
 
In this episode of The Stronger Podcast, Mike Montoya sits down with Jason, a senior policy fellow at WestEd, a national nonprofit that works on education and human development, and a clinical professor of public policy at the McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento, to talk about what states and districts can do as public school enrollment falls.

Jason started out on Wall Street as a credit rating analyst at Standard & Poor's, judging the financial health of public entities such as school districts and cities. He then came to California, where he was budget director at Oakland Unified, chief financial officer in Stockton, and an assistant superintendent at San Jose Unified for about five years. He and Mike have been friends and colleagues for many years.

With Carrie Hahnel of Bellwether, a national education nonprofit, Jason wrote a 12 page brief on how states can respond. The decline began in the mid 2010s, well before the pandemic, and its biggest driver is falling birth rates, with projections showing no flattening until sometime in the 2030s.

Mike and Jason get into why closing or consolidating a school should not be the first move, why some districts in lower cost exurbs on the edge of metro areas are growing, and why planning five or ten years out beats cutting a little every year. They also take on the compliance work, the forms and reports, that early estimates say takes nearly 40 percent of administrators' week, why grants to redesign schools only work when states take other duties off people's plates, and how the needs of the students who stay change as others leave.

Tune in to hear what Jason once told a room full of chief financial officers about selling their schools, and why he thinks winning back public trust will take a different conversation, with the student at the center.

Chapters:

Declining Enrollment in America's Public Schools: How States Can Respond Strategically: https://www.wested.org/resource/declining-enrollment-in-americas-public-schools/ 

The Hidden Geography of School Enrollment Decline: Exurban Districts Are Booming While Others Shrink: https://bellwether.org/blog/hidden-geography-of-school-enrollment-decline/ 

Local Control, Rising Requirements: What Policymakers Need to Know About the California Public Education Regulatory Environment Now: https://www.wested.org/blog/insights-impact/local-control-rising-requirements-what-policymakers-need-to-know-about-the-california-public-education-regulatory-environment-now/ 

Jason Willis at WestEd: https://www.wested.org/personnel/jason-willis/ 

More about WestEd: https://www.wested.org/ 

WestEd on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/wested 

Connect with Mike: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mmsc/ 

Stronger Consulting: https://strongerconsulting.com 

Start a podcast that matters: http://podcastsmatter.com 

For more great podcasts like this one, visit https://podcaststhatmatter.org/ 

Stay strong.