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Even though I'm a fan, Long Island is certainly a different place than it was 50 years ago; not the place for working class folk to want to raise kids.
Is this only a local issue? Are there regions of the country where the school-aged population is increasing?
Yes, there are as a result of population growth in general, not larger families per se.
Check out the Raleigh and Charlotte/Union County areas in NC, for example. High population growth with tech (Research Triangle) and the financial industry with a very educated population. My relative who teaches there has moved to new schools several times. In one year, there were 8 brand new schools that opened in Wake County (Raleigh).
She had students in her classes from various places but always some from the NYC and LI area. Sometimes one family member would move and then several others would follow with their families as the area appealed to them. Also, she said the faculties usually had quite a number of teachers educated at NY state schools but then moved South.
Last edited by shamrock4; 02-22-2024 at 05:46 PM..
Yes, there are as a result of population growth in general, not larger families per se.
Check out the Raleigh and Charlotte/Union County areas in NC, for example. High population growth with tech (Research Triangle) and the financial industry with a very educated population. My relative who teaches there has moved to new schools several times. In one year, there were 8 brand new schools that opened in Wake County (Raleigh).
She had students in her classes from various places but always some from the NYC and LI area. Sometimes one family member would move and then several others would follow with their families as the area appealed to them. Also, she said the faculties usually had quite a number of teachers educated at NY state schools but then moved South.
While archdioceses across NY, NJ and Conn are shutting down schools, hospitals and so on; down in North Carolina it's boom times.
Once it was had to go out to SI or NJ for family or friends events; now more and more it's down to North Carolina. That or around Thanksgiving or Christmas holidays you see tons of vehicles with NC plates on NJ or NYC area roads, parked in driveways....
Growing up in 1970's/1980's in a heavily Irish and Catholic (with a smattering of Germans, *LOL*) every family I knew had three, four or more kids. Mothers would have birthday parties inviting kids from the block or their kid's entire class from school and house would be packed. Family reunions or events were fun because there were tons of cousins.
Fast forward to modern times and it's rare outside of certain demographics or groups to have more than two kids, that's if they have any at all.
It's not just New York, or even USA, all over world the "baby bust" is real. When countries such as Poland and Ireland are reporting declining birthrates you know things are bad.
I grew up in an area of eastern Nassau Co with lots of Irish- & German-Americans as the first home occupants. The housing tracts were largely built up by the mid-'50s; 25-30 years later, Italian-Americans were dominating the successor owner demographic. My elementary school was built in '56 - and closed 21 years later, because of the first Baby Bust and the decline in major industries after the wind-down of the Vietnam War and Apollo programs (starting in the recession of 1970 - which was the occasion for my first hearing of that special word around the family dinner table: "layoffs") that saw many people move out of LI to other places. At its peak in 1974, my school district had 7 elementary schools, 2 jr high schools, and a very expanded 3-grade senior high school with ~4500 students. The drop-off after that was precipitous; graduating class size dropped by ~30% in just 5 years. By the mid'80s, 3 of the elementary school buildings were gone and one of the jr highs became the 4th remaining elementary school.
That said, the echo baby boomlet from the '90s (not from increased per person fertility rates, but increased numbers of people having children) did stabilize things for a while, and then the Great Recession kicked the stool out from under that.
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