It may appear that the statistics on school staffing violates the laws of demand and supply.
Massachusetts has seen a 42,000 drop in students between elementary, middle, and high schools over the last decade. However, school staff numbers have increased by 18,000. In Connecticut the public school population fell by 7 % while the staffing increased by 8 %. Even in states where the population is growing, school staff have been increasing much faster than students. Texas, for instance, has 367,000 additional students, an increase of 7 percent over the last decade. However, the number employees has risen by more than 107,000 – a 16 per cent jump. Washington state has experienced a 20-percent increase in the number of employees, while students have increased by only 3 per cent.
“When kids go to school right now there are more adults in the building of all types than there were in 2013 and more than when I was a kid,” said Marguerite Roza, director of the Edunomics Lab at…
