Michigan school district leaders say school choice policies and declining birth rates are causes for declining enrollment

Many have asked the state to help fund internal consolidation where districts close buildings or centralize operations

But district consolidation where districts merge together is not popular

Back in 2022, lawmakers allocated $5 million for school districts to explore consolidation.

No one took the lawmakers up on it in the first year.

But the following year, 16 districts got money to study consolidation. Still, no local district has actually consolidated.

K-12 enrollment in public schools is declining amid lower birth rates in Michigan and policies that give parents more choice in where to send their children to school.

That has left some districts with far mo

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