Saturday, December 31, 2016

State student population drops

So reports the Tribune.

This is, of course, no surprise.  Particularly as a recent Tribune report noted that the population of the state had declined, albeit not by much, last year.

This is caused, of course, by the decline in the oil industry we've been experiencing over the past couple of years.  If prices stabilize at their current levels, which it seems likely they will, this decline will likely stabilize as well.

It comes, of course, at the tail end of a school construction boom that anticipated an increasing student body, not a declining one. So, what the ultimate impact of that is will be yet to be seen. We note, of course, that that the local school district has determined to close one older grade school, a decision which would not seem unrelated to this story. And given as school construction, along with highway construction, has been a major economic engine in the state, and that's winding up, this remains as a story whose full impact is very much unknown.

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