6th-largest district in US proposes cutting 800 positions as Florida enrollment continues falling

In response to plummeting enrollment, Broward County Public Schools in Florida is planning to cut more than 800 jobs for the next academic year.

“The cuts are necessary because we’ve lost tens of thousands of students,” school board chair Sarah Leonardi told WLRN South Florida in an April 16 article. “Cuts are going to be painful and my heart hurts for the people impacted and I know the district will work with them to help them find a soft landing.”

The district, which ranks as the sixth largest in the nation, has forecast 25,700 fewer students in the 2030-31 academic year from its current count of 187,800 students.

“The decline in enrollment, which has been playing out for two decades, comes at a staggering financial loss to the district, as state funds depend on student head-count,” WLRN wrote, noting the district has an approximately $100 million budget deficit.

Most of the 856 positions being considered for elimination are vacant, although 353 of them were filled with staff in the 2025-26 academic year, according to the article.

“Enrollment is expected to plummet by about 8,000 students next school year, resulting in an approximate 300 fewer teacher positions. However, the majority of those will likely be due to natural attrition, not layoffs, district Chief of Communications John Sullivan told WLRN Thursday.”

National trends of declining enrollment

As K-12 enrollment continues to fall nationwide, more districts are facing pressure to “rightsize” their staff numbers in response to budget shortfalls.

“Had (the COVID-19 pandemic) not happened, I think we would have hit this point a lot sooner, but COVID masked that problem because we had a disruption in our operations, and so everything looked different,” said Rosalind Medina, chief financial officer of Tacoma Public Schools in Washington.

T.J. Kelly, chief financial officer for Washington’s Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, blamed “a lot of unique things happening post-pandemic” that added to schools’ financial woes.

“You had the sunsetting of the (American Rescue Plan Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund), you’ve had enrollment declines, and in a lot of cases, that enrollment hasn’t rebounded yet,” he said. “There are many factors contributing to just the financial circumstance of all districts right now that are easily identified and pointed to.”

Meanwhile, critics of public-school spending note the massive growth of administrative, non-teaching positions compared to traditional teaching roles within districts.

“Since 2019, the total number of public school staff has risen from 6.5 million to 6.8 million, but teachers fill less than half of all open staff positions,” Heartland Institute’s editorial director Chris Talgo observed. “And they are now outnumbered by non-teachers on staff — 3.6 million to 3.2 million.”

As a former public-school teacher, Talgo saw firsthand what he called the “badly run corporate bureaucracy” hindering educators who wanted to focus on instruction, not paperwork.

“Private and charter schools cost far less than public schools, do a far better job training students academically and are far safer,” he concluded.