Arizona families are making their choice — and increasingly, it’s not their local school district. Despite decades of open enrollment and charter schools, many districts still struggle to keep students from leaving .
The result? Closures , layoffs and budget shortfalls that will only get worse if districts don’t rethink how to compete.
Districts often cite declining birth rates as the reason for shrinking enrollment, but that’s only part of the story. The reality is, when families leave, they don’t just take their students with them — they remain in the local electorate, where they often vote against school funding measures …