DC public school staff increased 7 times faster than enrollment, underscores trend

An audit of D.C. Public Schools (DCPS) found staffing levels in the district have increased at a rate of seven-and-a-half times more than student enrollment, while simultaneously student achievement levels in the district still remain behind pre-pandemic levels for most students. 

The Office of the District of Columbia Auditor found that over a five-year period, while student enrollment grew by 2.6%, the number of staff increased by 19.5%. This amounts to roughly 1,600 new positions funded by the district since Fiscal Year 2020, and an approximately 43% increase in per-pupil spending.

Meanwhile, both in D.C. and nationally, students are still trying to find their way back to pre-pandemic achievement levels.

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“DC Public Schools works every day to help all our scholars reach their full potential. This recent report highlights a staffing strategy that prioritizes teachers and led to increases in enrollment and academic performance that stands out from other urban school districts. DCPS will work with the Office of the Chief Financial Officer to identify ways to improve data systems to demonstrate the district’s continued fiscal stewardship,” DCPS press secretary Evan Lambert told Fox News Digital in response to the audit’s findings. “Following the sunset of federal pandemic relief, DCPS has increased local funding to schools by decreasing the overall number of Central Services staff.”

The most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress, known colloquially as the nation’s report card, showed some improvements since the assessment was last released in 2022, but student achievement levels in reading and math nationally remain below 2019 levels for most students. In D.C. specifically, students saw better improvement than most big urban districts, but students in the nation’s capital have still not yet fully returned to pre-pandemic achievement levels, per the nation’s report card.

The United States is the third-biggest spender among the 40 other developed nations in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development on per-pupil spending, according to the Education Data Initiative. The pandemic spurred a massive influx of cash into the public school system as well, but many districts were found to be putting all that extra funding toward staff salaries and bonuses, as opposed to things directly related to student achievement.

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In North Carolina, the Wake County Public School System spent 78% of its total pandemic relief funding on salaries and employee benefits. In Chicago’s public schools system 77% of the district’s pandemic money went to staff bonuses, salaries and benefits.

“Thanks to an infusion of $190 billion in federal relief funds, schools have been on a hiring spree over the last few years,” stated an analysis by nonprofit education news group The 74. “For example, before the pandemic, Los Angeles Unified was reducing its teacher count pretty much in line with its declining enrollment. But with the infusion of federal (and state) funds, Los Angeles kept staffing levels constant despite further enrollment declines. Gwinnett County in Georgia shows a similar bifurcated trend. Its staffing and enrollment lines were moving in tandem until the federal funds drove a rapid increase in hiring.”

The 74, which stands for the 74 million American school children enrolled in K-12 schools across America, examined staffing and enrollment levels in over 9,500 school districts across the country, comprising roughly 92% of all K-12 students nationwide. 

The nonprofit education newsgroup found that almost 3,000 districts saw staff levels increase despite enrollment declines. Others, according to the analysis, shrunk their staff counts, but not as quickly as they lost students, while another category included districts that gained students but increased their staffing levels even faster. According to The 74, public schools overall added approximately 121,000 employees last year overall, even though they served about 110,000 fewer students.

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President Donald Trump and Republicans have taken steps to put greater control over school funding in the hands of individual states, as opposed to the federal government. Last month, he signed an executive order meant to effectively dismantle the U.S. Department of Education through transferring its educational authority to the states. Last week, GOP senators also introduced a bill to close the department.

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“Despite per-pupil spending having increased by more than 245% [since the 1970s,] there has been virtually no measurable improvement in student achievement,” Trump’s March 20 order stated. “President Donald J. Trump and his administration believe we can, and must, be better.”