Declining birth rates impact enrollment in Shelby County’s suburban schools
Substitute teacher Lisa Cannon reads a story to a Lakeland kindergarten art class. (The Daily Memphian file)
Enrollment is trending downward across Shelby County’s suburban schools, and that impacts funding as the municipal districts are finalizing their budgets.
While vouchers may be responsible for some of the decrease, birth rates are a larger factor. In several cases, the number of students graduating from the suburban districts is fewer than the incoming kindergarten students in August.
Tennessee births hit a record-high in 2007 with 86,000 births, according to the Tennessee State Data Center at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Many of those children are graduating from high school this month.
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Abigail Warren
Abigail Warren is an award-winning reporter and covers Collierville and Germantown for The Daily Memphian. She was raised in the Memphis suburbs, attended Westminster Academy and studied journalism at the University of Memphis. She has been with The Daily Memphian since 2018.
Michael Waddell
Michael Waddell is a native Memphian with more than 20 years of professional writing and editorial experience, working most recently with The Daily News and High Ground News.
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