Public Schools Added 121,000 Employees Last Year, Even as They Served 110,000 Fewer Students
Aldeman: New data show school staffing levels continue to hit all-time highs.

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According to new data released in December from the National Center for Education Statistics, public schools added 121,000 employees last year even as they served 110,000 fewer students.
On a per-student basis, that means public school staffing levels once again climbed to new all-time highs.
The NCES numbers are expressed in terms of full-time equivalents (FTEs), which are adjusted based on the number of hours worked by part-time staff. The FTE numbers are the most accurate measure of total staff time available, but they take time to collect. Separately, the Bureau of Labor Statistics collects raw headcount numbers on the total number of employees in a given industry or sector. Those data come out faster, and the latest numbers suggest that public schools have continued hiring this year.
Despite all the continued attention to supposed teacher shortages, the truth is that schools employ more educators than ever. At the same time that student enrollments fell by 1.3 million (a decline of 2.5%) over the last five years, schools added the equivalent of 55,000 teachers.
As a result, 45 states and the District of Columbia have effectively lowered their student-to-teacher ratio over the last five years. In most places, the changes are small, but 13 states — Colorado, New York, Michigan, Massachusetts, California, New Mexico, Virginia, Illinois, Mississippi, Indiana, Utah, Oregon and Louisiana — reduced their ratios by more than one student per teacher. Only Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Alaska and Florida had more students per teachers last year than they did going into the pandemic. (We’re currently working on updating our map showing the same trends at the district level.)
But it’s not just teachers: Over the last five years, schools have added 171,000 full-time staff members in a variety of roles. If you walked into a school today, you’d find more paraprofessionals and administrators. Schools also have more guidance counselors, psychologists and support service staff, which NCES defines as employees “who nurture, but do not instruct students” and includes “attendance officers; staff providing health, speech pathology, audiology or social services; and supervisors of the preceding staff; coaches, athletic advisers and athletic trainers.”

*Data start in 2019-20.
**Data start in 2020-21.
Only three categories of school employees — administrative support staff, librarians and media support staff — did not see an increase over this five-year time period. The largest of these is administrative support staff, people whose primary responsibilities are to assist principals or department chairs. The number of librarians and media support staff also fell, part of a steady trend over the last few decades as fewer schools employ fewer full-time people in their libraries.
This may feel like déjà vu all over again to readers who have followed these trends closely since the pandemic. But with districts using the last of their COVID relief funds late last year, it will soon become clear whether they can sustain the investments they’ve been making. There’s no sign of the peak yet, but the fiscal cliff is getting closer.
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