MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. — Miami-Dade County Public Schools Superintendent Jose Dotres said on Wednesday that the district will be able to sustain staffing expenses as planned for the 2025-26 school year despite a decrease in student enrollment that was higher than anticipated.
With about 13,060 fewer students, there was a decrease of about 4%. The district had nearly 326,280 when at the beginning of the 2024-25 school year, and 313,220 during the same period this year. This raised concerns since Florida’s public school funding is directly linked to student enrollment.
“Not one teacher is going to be let go,” Dotres said about the fear of cuts related to the budget implications.
Dotres said that the projections on enrollment decreases prompted school principals to be very conservative on hiring, and the school district still has a list of vacancies and ongoing recruitment efforts.
Dotres stood in front of a television displaying charts that reported the district had projected there would be 5,000 fewer students, and the projection was off by 8,000. The estimates were part of a presentation and not a report.
“That number will continue to decrease day by day,” Dotres said about the hundreds who he said were still enrolling this week.
Dotres said a decrease of about 2,000 fewer kindergarteners was attributed to declining birth rates. He said the causes for the “no shows” were still under investigation with phone calls and house visits. Dotres said that there was not a “pattern of fear” so far.
Undocumented migrants who rely on tuition-free education for their kids in Miami-Dade County face an ongoing state and federal government push for deportations. There have also been changes to migrants’ temporary protected status.
Dotres did cite the high cost of living and a “significant decrease” in “newcomers” from other countries to the decrease in enrollment. During his presentation in English and Spanish, Dotres stood next to a “M-DCPS Your Best Choice” banner.
The Florida Department of Education has been increasingly using taxpayers’ funds that were formerly allocated to traditional public schools to fund “School Choice” initiatives.
It started through charter schools, some of which are operated by for-profit companies under the school districts, and it continues through scholarship vouchers for private schools.
The M-DCPS choice programs not related to private schools include specialized magnet schools, parent choice to request exclusions on area limits, and career academies.
“These narratives that we get from the parents that did not show up really help us even develop choice programs,” Dotres said.
Meanwhile, Broward County Public Schools released detailed data on the district’s 10th-day enrollment count showing a decrease of nearly 4.7%. The data showed that the decrease impacted district schools significantly more than charter schools.
M-DCPS did not release detailed data. The M-DCPS superintendent used X to describe a roundtable discussion he hosted on Wednesday as very productive.
BCPS’s Benchmark Day Enrollment Count, a standardized measure to establish the official student enrollment, is on Sept. 8.
Related story: Broward student enrollment declines more in district schools than in charter schools
Watch videos of the superintendent’s presentation
‘Tough decisions’
Cost of living moves
Decrease in ‘newcomers’
Charter school enrollment
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