Hawaiʻi schools have fewer students for the eighth year in a row as lawmakers push for campus closures and consolidations by the end of the decade, according to recent data from the state education department.
This fall marks the first time in at least a decade that student enrollment in the Department Education dipped below 150,000. Public schools enrolled a total of 147,656 kids this year, nearly a 2% drop from last fall.
A decade ago, public schools enrolled nearly 170,000 students. The education department has attributed the drop in students to declining birth rates and families with young children leaving the state…