On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Marguerite Roza, the director of the Edunomics Lab and a research professor at Georgetown University, joins Mike and David to discuss how schools and school systems can downsize in response to declining enrollment. Then, on the Research Minute, Adam examines a new study investigating the academic impacts of ESSER funding, the largest one-time federal investment in public schools in history.

Recommended content: 

• “The math of school closures: How district leaders should navigate the perfect storm of budget shortfalls and declining student enrollment” —Marguerite Roza & Aashish Dhammani, The 74
• “Schools will have to start closing again” —Michael Petrilli, Wall Street Journal
• “Doing educational equity right: School closures” —Michael Petrilli, Fordham Institute
• Dan Goldhaber and Grace Falken, “ESSER and student achievement: Assessing the impacts of the largest one-time federal investment in K12 schools,” CALDER (June 2024).

Feedback Welcome: Have ideas for improving our podcast? Send them to Daniel Buck at [email protected].