The number of school-age children in America is declining. And declining university enrollment based on a lower school-age population — which has been described as a “demographic cliff” — is something that some colleges are already grappling with. K-12 public school systems around the country are facing a similar demographic reality. As The Times’s Shawn Hubler reported in May, “All together America’s public schools have lost at least 1.2 million students since 2020,” according to a survey from the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute. Even in states like Arizona, where there’s been overall population growth in recent years, enrollment has remained below prepandemic numbers, and rural schools in the state have been struggling for several years.

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Persons: Shawn Hubler, “, Thomas Dee, ”, there’s Organizations: American Enterprise Institute, Stanford’s Graduate School of Education Locations: America, Chicago, Michigan, Philadelphia , New York City, Seattle, Boston, United States, Florida’s Orange County, Orlando, Pinellas County, Tampa, Arizona