(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)
I have a guest post over at RedefinED today showing that Florida’s young and elderly populations will be simultaneously and hugely expanding over the next 17 years. The policy changes needed to successfully cope with such profound shifts will likely make the last 15 years seem quaint by comparison.
I’m generally a determined optimist, but the demographic changes in Florida will require substantial changes in every aspect of state policy-not just K-12, but higher education, health care and pensions.
By the way, the same phenomenon is coming to a state near you. The Census Bureau projects that the state with the lowest Age Dependency Ratio in 2030 will be greater than the state with the highest Age Dependency Ratio in 2010.
In K-12, we need to find ways to educate children that improve both academic and cost effectiveness. The sooner we do this the better, because the highly stressed working age taxpayers of 2030 are in the K-12 pipeline right now.
Jay P. Greene's Blog 