马萨诸塞州梅休因——今年早些时候，在这座中产阶级城市，关于取消学校社团和裁减教师的担忧达到了沸点。
METHUEN, Mass.—Worries about rolling back school clubs and laying off teachers in this middle-class city reached a fever pitch earlier this year.
梅休因位于新罕布什尔州边界附近，人口约5.5万。该市的预算压力引发了一场辩论，议题是是否要将中学乐队和小学科学等深受珍视的项目列入削减名单。同样面临风险的还有100多个岗位，从管理员到教师专家不等。
Budget strains in Methuen, a city of about 55,000 near the New Hampshire border, spurred a debate about putting cherished programs like middle-school band and elementary-school science on the chopping block. Also at risk: more than 100 positions, from custodians to teacher specialists.
到5月，教师和家长们挤满了一场市议会会议。他们主张，班级规模将会膨胀。家长安妮·巴雷特说，她担心当时上五年级、吹长号的儿子会失去在乐队演出的机会。“削减艺术课程对我来说就像一条红线，”她说。
By May, teachers and parents packed a city council meeting. Class sizes would balloon, they argued. Parent Anney Barrett said she worried her then-fifth-grade son, who plays trombone, would lose the opportunity to perform in a band. “Cutting fine arts feels like a red line to me,” she said.
随着K-12学生入学人数下降、给政府拨款带来压力，类似的场景正在美国各地上演。入学人数下降的一个主要原因是家庭生育的孩子更少。
Similar scenes are playing out across the U.S. as K-12 student enrollment falls, putting pressure on government funding. A major culprit of falling enrollment is families having fewer children.
这些争论在马萨诸塞州冲击尤大，该州长期以来一直以拥有顶尖的公共教育而自豪。在梅里马克谷、梅休因附近的德拉库特公立学校正在考虑关闭一所学生人数已从近300人缩减至210人的小学，取消部分年级的校车接送，并将全日制幼儿园缩减为半天制。在北安多弗，管理人员去年因入学人数下降关闭了一所小学，重新分配了约200名学生。
The debates hit hard in Massachusetts, which has long prided itself on a top-tier public education. Near Methuen in the Merrimack Valley, Dracut Public Schools are considering closing an elementary school that has shrunk to 210 students from almost 300, eliminating busing for some grades and reducing full-day kindergarten to half. In North Andover, administrators closed an elementary school last year as a result of declining enrollment, redistributing about 200 students.
“就我们拥有的孩子数量而言，我们的学校肯定太多了，”研究教育财政的乔治城大学教授玛格丽特·罗扎说。
“We definitely have too many schools for how many kids we have,” said Marguerite Roza, a Georgetown professor who studies education finance.
美国的年出生人数自2007年达到峰值以来持续下降。如今的幼儿园入学人数下降反映的是五到六年前“缺失”的出生人口。
Annual births in the U.S. have fallen off since peaking in 2007. Today’s kindergarten enrollment declines reflect the “missing” births of five to six years earlier.
根据罗扎对联邦数据的分析，2025-26学年K-12公立学校的入学总数为4880万名学生，较2017-18学年下降3.7%。像她这样的人口学家预计，由于出生率下降，这一降势将持续，甚至加速。
Enrollment at K-12 public schools totaled 48.8 million students in the 2025-26 school year, down 3.7% from 2017-18, according to Roza’s analysis of federal data. Demographers like her expect the decline to continue, even accelerate, because of lower birthrates.
许多学区还面临额外的入学压力，这使出生率下降的影响更加严重。一些家庭因住房市场价格上涨而无力负担。另一些家庭则选择私立学校或其他替代学校。学校官员表示，在一些地方，针对移民的联邦政策促使家长让孩子退学。
Many school districts have additional enrollment pressures that compound falling birthrates. Some families are priced out of rising housing markets. Others are choosing private or alternative schools. In some places, federal policies targeting immigrants have prompted parents to withdraw their children from school, school officials say.
与大多数州一样，马萨诸塞州将教育拨款与入学人数挂钩，而城市和城镇则提供地方资金。当学生人数下降时，学区往往仍面临人员配备、建筑和服务方面的高额固定成本。
Like most states, Massachusetts ties education aid to enrollment, while cities and towns contribute local funds. When student numbers fall, districts often still face high fixed costs for staffing, buildings and services.
米修恩的幼儿园教师米歇尔·雷塔诺表示，近年来她的班级规模在16到18个孩子之间，低于她2012年刚开始在该学区任教时的20到24个。她说，与此同时，对教师的要求却在上升，因为越来越多的学生表现出自闭症、发育问题和其他特殊需求；还有更多学生在英语作为第二语言方面存在困难。
Michelle Reitano, a kindergarten teacher in Methuen, said her class sizes have ranged from 16 to 18 children in recent years, down from 20 to 24 when she began teaching in the district in 2012. At the same time, she said, the demands on teachers have risen as more students exhibit autism, developmental issues and other special needs; there are also more students struggling with English as a second language.
“入学人数在下降，但需求却在上升，”雷塔诺说。“这种讨论年复一年地进行，而且情况显然越来越糟。”多年来，米修恩削减了教师岗位，并取消了一些西班牙语和健康教育课程。该学区没有增聘图书管理员，而是让高中图书管理员每周在其每所K-8学校待上几个小时。在一所学校，由于预算削减改变了课程安排和课程设置，美术课的班级规模有所扩大。
“Enrollment is falling but the needs are rising,” Reitano said. “The conversation happens year after year, and it definitely seems to get worse.”Over the years, Methuen has eliminated teaching positions and cut some Spanish and health-education classes. Rather than hiring additional librarians, the district’s high-school librarian spends a few hours a week at each of its K-8 schools. At one school, art-class sizes have grown as budget cuts reshape schedules and course offerings.
“没有显而易见的决定，也没有轻松的选择，”曾在该学区学校委员会任职的家长丹·希比利亚说。
“There are no obvious decisions, no easy call,” said Dan Shibilia, a parent who has served on the district’s school board.
今年春天，学校委员会最初批准了2026-27学年1.18亿美元的预算，高于该市表示能够负担的1.14亿美元。这一缺口引发了关于社区希望其学校提供哪些内容的一波辩论。
This past spring, the school committee initially approved a budget of $118 million for the 2026-27 school year, higher than the $114 million the city said it could afford. The shortfall prompted a wave of debate about what the community wants its schools to offer.
在市议会会议上，四年级教师莎伦·拉普兰特提出，教师根本无法应付28名学生的班级，尤其是当许多学生还有额外需求时。“那将不是教学，而是看管，”她说。
At the city council meeting, fourth-grade teacher Sharon LaPlante argued that there was no way teachers could handle classes of 28 students, especially when many have additional needs. “It won’t be teaching. It will be monitoring,” she said.
巴雷特是一位家长，她的儿子吹长号，她带来了上小学的女儿海伦。海伦说，在健康课程被削减后，孩子们已经受到了损失。
Barrett, the parent whose son plays trombone, brought her grade-school daughter Helen, who said kids were already losing out after wellness classes were cut.
“我们就是在那门课上学到如何帮助被霸凌的人，以及在学校里感到非常愤怒或难过时该怎么做，”这个小女孩说。
“That was where we learned about how to help someone that was being bullied and what to do if you feel really mad or sad at school,” said the young girl.
市长兼学校委员会主席小戴维·P·博勒加德最终找到了额外80万美元，用于帮助保住学区的课后项目。学区召回了部分已被裁掉的教师，最终只削减了数十个职位。被削减的岗位包括幼儿园至六年级教师、医疗助理、学校辅导员、一名多语种教师和一名技术专家。学区还不得不搁置新设金融素养课程的计划。
David P. Beauregard Jr., the mayor and school committee chair, ended up finding an extra $800,000 to help preserve the district’s after-school programs. The district called back some teachers it had let go and only dozens of positions were ultimately eliminated. The cuts included K-6 teachers, medical assistants, school counselors, a multilingual teacher, and a technology specialist. The district also had to shelve plans for a new financial literacy program.
学校委员会副主席尼古拉斯·迪佐利奥一直在考虑，学区是否应将其四所幼儿园至八年级学校重组为一所小学、一所初中和一所面向有特殊需求学生的合作学校。七八年级学生或许可以参加高中级别的体育活动，而高三和高四学生则在附近的马萨诸塞大学洛厄尔分校修读大学课程。
Nicholas DiZoglio, vice chair of the school committee, has wondered whether the district should reorganize its four K-8 schools into an elementary school, a junior high and a collaborative school for students with special needs. Seventh- and eighth-graders might be able to participate in sports at the high-school level, while juniors and seniors take college courses at nearby UMass Lowell.
“我不想关闭学校，”他说，“关键在于更好地利用我们的资产。”为了设法提高入学人数，学区最近投票决定向学区外的学生开放10个名额。临时学监丽莎·G·托米并不认为这是一个有意义的长期解决方案，因为出生率下降正困扰着整个州。
“I don’t want to close schools,” he said. “It’s about utilizing our assets better.”To try to boost enrollment, the district recently voted to open up 10 seats to students from outside the district. Lisa G. Twomey, the interim superintendent, doesn’t see that as a meaningful long-term solution, since lower birthrates are plaguing the whole state.
“我们是在争取同样的学生——而这样的学生越来越少了，”她说。
“We’re trying to play for the same students—of which there are fewer,” she said.
该学区正试图扩大职业课程，以留住更多高中生。学区还计划通过投资内部特殊教育项目来长期节省开支。目前，将残障儿童送往外部项目每年要花费学区数百万美元。
The district is trying to expand its vocational offerings to retain more high-school students. It also plans to save costs in the long run by investing in an in-house special-education program. Sending kids with disabilities to outside programs currently costs the district millions each year.
托米最近要求她的学校委员会增加特殊教育教师、一名学校交通管理员以及一名高中学职业项目的监督人员。“我们争取到了这些岗位，但总是拆东墙补西墙，”她说。
Twomey recently asked her school committee to add special-education teachers, a school-transportation administrator and an overseer for the high school’s vocational program. “We got them, but it’s always a shuffle,” she said.