At recent budget and school board meetings, declining enrollment has been blamed on one factor: declining birth rate. While this may be contributing to fewer students entering Corvallis schools, it completely glances over startling trends seen in district enrollment since 2014. Before we dive into those trends, let’s look at enrollment as a whole. Pictured is a graph of district enrollment since the 2018/19 school year. While it may not look startling, this is a 19.2% enrollment decrease in only 9 years. The birth rate decline does not fully account for this decrease.
In 2013-2014 private school enrollment of students in the 509j boundaries was 10.1 percent. In 2023-2024 it is 15.5%. Additionally, charter school enrollment has increased by 13.3% since 2013-2014 for in-district charter schools and has increased by 32% for out-of-district and virtual charter schools. This information is according to 509j archives accessed on Boardbook (the school board’s archive). Is this an issue the superintendent can blame on declining birth rates?
So the key question is why are parents choosing to move their children to private schools?
Karen Remedios is a mother in the district who made that decision. Remedios said she moved both her sons from Bessie Coleman Elementary to the Ashbrook Independent School, a private school in Corvallis. The district’s math shift was a driving reason for the decision, along with differences over extracurricular offerings, she said. Remedios said she wanted to keep her children on an advanced track. Her husband, Arun Natarajan, said it was a difficult decision to move to a private school, and he’s sensitive to equity concerns. But he also feels the Corvallis School District’s policies are creating a worse environment for students, particularly for students who don’t feel challenged in a math class that’s below their knowledge and skill level. (This testimony was provided by the Crescent Crier’s Gazette-Times Contact: Hans Boyle)
While Karen Remedios cannot speak for everyone moving their children to private schools, she speaks for many. Standardization of Math in the elementary and middle schools as well as a flawed behavior policy (or lack thereof) have prompted higher-income families to choose in-person private, virtual education, and homeschooling as an alternative to the Corvallis School District.
In closing, the district seems to be ignoring a core reason why enrollment is declining. Until the district can assess the reasons for increasing private school enrollment and bring the full scope of the issue into its thought process, it is doubtful that enrollment will see an uptick.
The Crescent Crier 