On the latest episode of the Debtwire Municipals Muni Lowdown, Managing Editor Paul Greaves speaks with reporters Deb Pace and Kunal Kamal about the Long Island Power Authority's (LIPA) setbacks and diverging trends in school district enrollment.

Deb Pace kicks off the podcast providing an overview of the legislative efforts to turn LIPA into a public utility that started back in 2021. Deb then turns to updating the status of the draft report and the circumstances behind the four-month delay for a legislative hearing on the report and the termination of the consultant, GDS Associates. Deb concludes with a discussion of a couple of key items yet to be determined which are: the continuity of the workforce and the governance structure of the “new LIPA”.

Kunal comes to the podcast to detail some interesting and divergent trends in school district enrollment nationally between the fall of 2010 through the fall of 2021. Kunal discusses that states in the Midwest, Northeast and Western parts of the country have experienced significant enrollment declines. Meanwhile, the Southeast, Southwest and Great Plains regions have seen the opposite. He follows up with an overview of the impact of charter schools, private schools and homeschooling on enrollment. Kunal concludes the podcast by highlighting that states with the largest enrollment declines often have the highest per-pupil spending and the factors behind this.

As reporters for Debtwire Municipals, Kunal Kamal covers tax-backed credits in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, stadium finance, regulatory developments and relevant federal actions affecting the municipal market, while Deb Pace covers mass transit, toll roads, tax-backed credits in the State of Illinois and utilities.

#LIPA #municipalization #schooldistricts #enrollment