RE: School District Issues & Discussion

["Dale Courtney" <dmcourtn@moscow.com>]

> Not suprisingly the district HAS reviewed the 
> circumstances and as much as possible (some 
> folks leave without a "forwarding address" so to 
> speak) DOES know where the enrollment has 
> gone.  The short answer is that the majority 
> have left the area, not transferred elsewhere 
> locally. 

Mike,

This makes no sense to me. 

If you look at the Census Bureau's data
(http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/16/16057.html), you will see
that the number of children here *under 18* has _increased_ by 20.3% in
the last 10 years. 

Yet MSD states the following at:
http://www.sd281.k12.id.us/GeneralInformation/files/movement.pdf

"Enrollment in the Moscow School District has declined by 357 students
during the past five years." 

How can the school-aged population increate by 20.3% and yet MSD lose
15.1% of their students? 

MSD continues: 
"It is obvious that some students enter the district from other public
schools, home
schools, charter schools, and private schools. The information we have
seems to
indicate that families with children are leaving the area in larger
numbers than
other families with children are coming to Moscow."

That's just factually incorrect!

If my review of the statistics from the 2000 Census is correct for
Moscow, it appears that over 25% of all the school children are
currently educated *outside* of MSD (charter, private, home, etc). 

Can someone please tell me where MSD came up with their numbers? 

Dale