RE: School District Issues & Discussion

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

Ron wrote: 
> I believe what the table says is that 20.3% of the total 
> county population is under 18. No trend is given for that statistic.

OK, this is my last look at the statistics until the census bureau
reports the facts.

1.  The census bureau reports that Latah's total population has
increased 14.1% in 10 years
(http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/16/16057.html)

2.  The census bureau reports that Latah's 17-and-under population has
increased 20.3% in 10 years
(http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/16/16057.html)

3.  Moscow's total population increased from 18,519 in 1990 to 21,291 in
2000 (13% in 10 years)
(http://www2.census.gov/census_2000/datasets/demographic_profile/Idaho/2
kh16.pdf vs http://venus.census.gov/cdrom/lookup/1021654114)

4.  Moscow's school-aged children make up 11.2% of the total population
(http://www2.census.gov/census_2000/datasets/demographic_profile/Idaho/2
kh16.pdf)

5.  MSD reports that they are down 357 students (15.1%) in 5 years
(http://www.sd281.k12.id.us/GeneralInformation/files/movement.pdf and
http://www.sd281.k12.id.us/GeneralInformation/files/Enrollment_11-02-01.
pdf)

Now, you don't have to have a PhD in statistics to see that the books
don't balance. *All* the stats show that the overall population and the
school-aged population is up anywhere from 13%-20% and that school
enrollment is down 15%

Not only has there been an exodus from the government schools, there's
been a *mass exodus*. Well, let me rephrase that -- there should have
been a mass *entrance* (up ~15% instead of down 15%).

MSD alleges that the cause is families with kids leaving. That's
nonsense. Nothing supports that allegation.

Rather, the question is why parents are not enrolling them to begin
with. 

I've said my statistical peace. We'll wait until the school enrollment
data is in (http://www.census.gov/census2000/futurereleases.html), then
there'll be no more guess work.

Dale