“Our county schools are faced with a similar problem.
Declining enrollment means bad news for a lot of teachers and administrators.”
It is not a problem at all. It is called variable costs and the product produced by schools is an educated student. If the market declines, then variable costs decline and therefore you need less of the labor cost input to variable costs. It is normal for any product or service.
The fact that government schools fail to react to market reality, is an admission that they have no interest in managing their costs and they have no interest in what they are supposed to be producing.
You are absolutely correct.
Like it or not, schools are political and axes are ground when there is any change at all