Virtual Education: Opening Closed Doors

Rachel Sheffield / May 03, 2010

This fall, fewer than half of all public school students in Kansas City, Missouri will return to their former classrooms. Due to budget constraints and declining student enrollment, the district is closing nearly 30 of its 61 public schools.

The number of public school students in the Kansas City Missouri School District has been decreasing steadily for decades. Whereas in the 1960s over 70,000 students attended KCMSD public schools, today that number is less than 18,000. The school district’s history of political turmoil led to families who could afford it either relocating to the suburbs or opting to send their children to private schools. Even a judicial mandate in the 1980s that pumped $2 billion into the schools couldn’t win them back nor could it improve test scores. (more…)