It must be noted that I started documenting these education shutdowns at the beginning of 2014. In that year I posted the reports biannually (every six months). In 2015 education cutbacks ramped up and I posted quarterly (every three months). For the past four months of 2016 there have been so many education cutbacks that I’ve posted a report every month!
Disappearing Students Syndrome (DSS): A phrase created by me to describe a phenomenon taking place across the United States, affecting both privately and publicly funded schools, from Kindergarten all the way through University levels.
Incomplete list of publicly announced education related layoffs & school shutdowns, April 2016:
Arizona: Scandalous University of Phoenix eliminated more jobs, this time 470 people were laid off without warning, due to crashing student enrollment! The for-profit university is for sale. More proof higher education is a waste of your time and money; the state Department of Administration says the fastest growing sector of the Grand Canyon State’s job market (by 27.7%) are jobs that don’t even require a high school education! The next biggest job sector is that which requires only a high school diploma. You should note that the ‘elected’ state leaders have been focusing job promotion on sectors that require higher education.
California: New York based Barnes & Noble shutting down an office in Santa Clara, 80 jobs lost. It’s part of the book seller’s plan to cut costs by $13-million USD. For-profit ICDC College shutting down their Huntington Park campus, 244 jobs lost by the end of May! University California Berkeley announced it will eliminate 5-hundred jobs (not counting the 60 people being laid off now) over the next two years, due to lack of taxpayer funding!
Florida: In Orlando, Florida Connections Academy issued a WARN, 80 jobs lost between June and August.
Georgia: The Ivy Preparatory Academy’s Young Men’s Leadership Academy shutting down by next school year. This is the second Ivy Prep school to be shutdown by state education administrators, supposedly due to weak finances and academic performance (but I wonder if it really has something to do with the plurality of the students and employees being ‘black’).
Idaho: The Dean of Science for University of Idaho was found dead in his Prius after it was pulled from the Dworshak Reservoir. He was reported missing and a few hours later was found in his car in the reservoir, near a boat ramp. The situation is being investigated. In Twin Falls, after 37 years God powerless to stop ‘unofficial’ Mormon Bell’s Family Books from being shutdown by ‘official’ Mormon bookstore Deseret Book! You read right! Local news reports say Bell’s Family Books was facing increasing competition, the final straw being when their own religion opened a bookstore down the street.
Illinois: Chicago State University announced the elimination of 3-hundred jobs! It’s blamed on the fact that failed ‘elected’ state lawmakers withheld a year’s worth of funding from Illinois higher education providers by failing to come up with a budget! Local news reports say Harper College in Palatine, and College of Lake County in Grayslake, laid off about 49 employees due to the failed ‘elected’ lawmakers’ budget battles. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign warning of mass layoffs due to the incompetent ‘elected’ state lawmakers. The mass layoffs would take place by the end of August. Highland Community College eliminating six jobs, blaming the failed ‘law makers’ for failing to come up with a state budget. Highland Community College is also jacking up tuition! Edwardsville School District 7 warning of mass layoffs, fee increases and local tax hikes due to the economy failing to recover, contrary to what U.S. ‘leadership’ and main stream news media falsely claim. Local news reports explained that the school district was flush with “reserve” cash when the official recession started, but the economy never recovered and now the district is not only out of money, but is $4.5-million USD in the hole! Read the Belleville News-Democrat for the sobering truth (and a long list of drastic school district changes). Barnes & Noble shutting down three bookstores by the end of May; one in the Arlington Shopping Center, the Woodfield Plaza Shopping Center and in Deer Park Town Center! No word on how many jobs will be lost. Western Illinois University laying off 110 employees: “Despite the ongoing furlough/voluntary pay reduction program and the drastic reductions to spending, these layoffs are necessary to protect the university’s cash resources. In spite of our best efforts to conserve financial resources, without an appropriation from our state government, the university will face even greater financial challenges.”–Jack Thomas, president
Kansas: God powerless to stop the shutdown of ‘his’ 46 years old Shawnee Presbyterian Preschool. The Rapture, I mean what I call Disappearing Students Syndrome is forcing them to shutdown by the end of the year. Mission Group Kansas owned Wright Career College ceased to exist. The chapter 7 bankruptcy shuts down campuses in Kansas, Nebraska and Oklahoma. Administrators said “From our beginning in 1921 until our closure, we have always operated with the focus of putting the interests of our students first. It is unfortunate our students cannot complete their programs at Wright Career College.” However, in 2013 hundreds of students sued the college saying it “purposefully enticed prospective students to enroll and apply for student loans they cannot pay back through a systematic, deceptive marketing scheme.”
Kentucky: Jefferson Community and Technical College eliminating 101 jobs (61 ’employees’ & 40 ‘instructors’) due to what I call Disappearing Students Syndrome (DSS)! Since 2010 student enrollment has crashed by 4-thousand 3-hundred!
Michigan: Kalkaska Public Schools ending its lease on its Northside Alternative High School. It’ll save the struggling school district $3-thousand 8-hundred USD per month. The district is in trouble after a check of accounting books showed that it had been overpaid by 900-thousand tax dollars over three years. It’s suspected certain administrators within district knew of the overpayment, but never said anything. Now the state is taking $29-thousand per month away from the district, until the overpayment is corrected. Pittsford Area Schools Board of Education approved the layoff of five employees. It’s blamed on what I call DSS, the school board even stated that families are moving away from the state of Michigan.
Missouri: Missouri University eliminating 54 jobs due to $5.4-million USD in taxpayer funding cuts, caused by what I call Disappearing Students Syndrome. University of Missouri-St. Louis Chancellor Thomas George eliminating 85 jobs due to a shortage of $15-million USD!
New Hampshire: Dartmouth College’s Geisel School of Medicine laying off 30 people, and conducting restructuring that will affect 285 employees! The 285 are being considered for transfer to Dartmouth-Hitchcock.
New Jersey: In South Amboy, after more than 1-hundred years (surviving The Great deflationary Depression and numerous recessions) God powerless to stop the shutdown of ‘his’ Sacred Heart Elementary School because “…enrollment has decreased by 40 students and the subsidy required to sustain the school’s operation has risen to over a half-million dollars annually…” The Clifton Board of Education approved the outright elimination of 49 jobs and also notified 5-hundred non-tenured employees that they will not be considered for re-hire next school year! The Lacey Township School District eliminating 25 jobs and jacking up local taxes by 4.4.%! Local news reports said school taxes are supposed to be capped at 2%!
New York: God powerless to stop ‘his’ Catholic Charities of Buffalo from shutting down their social services operations within taxpayer funded public schools (hey, isn’t that a violation of the 1st Amendment, government shall not recognize a religion?), at least 65 jobs lost by the end of June. After ten years P.S. Bookstore forced to shutdown because it can’t pay its NYC (Brooklyn) property taxes. The bookstore operator says he never got a tax bill for the first three years of operations (the fault of the landlord, in NYC evil landlord’s collect property taxes from their tenants), then he suddenly got a massive bill in 2014 which he just could not pay. He even tried raising the money through internet crowdfunding but failed. Lighthouse Guild issued a shutdown WARN for their The Ethel and Samuel J. Lefrak School, 32 jobs lost between July and August. In Albion, after almost six years the owners of Bindings Bookstore suddenly shut it down. Sales are good, but not good enough for the owners and they’re trying trying to sell it off. Sodexo lost its food contract with Fordham University, 382 jobs gone by the end of June!
North Carolina: Teachers Memorial School in Kinston shutting down by August. Vague news reports say the county questioned the school district’s operating costs.
North Dakota: University of North Dakota suddenly laid off 20 people and halted admissions to several programs. The school is short at least $5.3-million USD! However, local news reports said the UND music therapy program, itself, is short $7-million USD!
Ohio: After 164 years (surviving The Great deflationary Depression and numerous recessions) children’s mental health treatment chain Beech Brook forced to eliminate 179 jobs due to Medicaid funding cuts!
Pennsylvania: The Society Hill Playhouse (educating kids and adults in the theater arts) shutdown after more than 50 years. There was no reason given in the reports I read. ‘Troubled youth’ caretaker NHS Youth Services issued a layoff WARN for their Northwestern Academy, but failed to say how many people were losing their jobs. In York, Durham School Services announced it will eliminate 88 jobs by the beginning of June. In Lansford, Our Lady of Angels Academy has gone from 8-hundred students to just more than 1-hundred, and god is powerless to stop the shutdown in July. Administrators said the only way they could stay open was to jack up the fees, but christian parents can’t afford to pay more fees.
South Dakota: Southeast Technical Institute warned of layoffs due to what I call DSS.
Texas: In Austin internet based business education service Amazing Academy (amazing.com) laid off 50% of its employees without warning! The news came from the former employees.
Vermont: For the third year in a row the Burlington School District is prepping employees for mass layoffs, and for the second time is jacking up local taxes, and will eliminate classes because “…the decline in overall enrollment has resulted in numerous under-enrolled classes that can be consolidated.” Teacher Bob Abbey bemoaned “…Burlington has become a second-tier educational system. We are going in the wrong direction.” Read the sobering Burlington Free Press article which gives a list of drastic changes coming for the school district.
Washington DC: U.S. Department of Education has revealed that their economic outlook for the future of the United States is so bad that 43% of us fools who got into debt to get a higher education will never be able to pay off that debt to the government! As of January 2016, 3.6-million former higher education students had defaulted (meaning they stopped making payments, you can’t declare bankruptcy against student debt) on $56-billion USD worth of student loans!
Dumbing Down the United States, March 2016: “Let’s be clear; this campaign promotes an agenda designed to undermine public schools.”