Public Schools Try to Sell Themselves as More Students Use Vouchers - The New York Times

8/5/25, 8:57 AM                                   Public Schools Try to Sell Themselves as More Students Use Vouchers - The New York Times


                                           https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/05/us/public-school-enrollment-decline-
                                                                       vouchers.html




 Public Schools Try to Sell Themselves as More
 Students Use Vouchers
 A decline in the number of children and rise in the number of choices has created
 a crisis for public schools. Some are trying new strategies to recruit students.


          Listen to this article · 10:30 min Learn more



              By Dana Goldstein
              Dana Goldstein traversed Orlando with a team of public school recruiters who were searching for families.

 Aug. 5, 2025 Updated 9:35 a.m. ET


 A decline in the number of babies being born and a boom in private school
 vouchers and home-schooling have combined to create an enrollment crisis for
 public education.

 The threat is so great that some school districts are trying something that would
 have once seemed unthinkable.

 School systems in Orlando, Newark, Memphis and dozens of other cities and towns
 have hired consultants who aggressively woo parents to convince them to enroll
 their children in local public schools.

 Brian J. Stephens has built a business around this new reality. Mr. Stephens, a
 political consultant based in Memphis, runs Caissa K12, a consulting firm for public
 school districts with the tag line “We recruit students.”

 Caissa K12 has taken off, with over 100 district clients. Its popularity illustrates
 some of the challenges facing public education.



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8/5/25, 8:57 AM                                   Public Schools Try to Sell Themselves as More Students Use Vouchers - The New York Times

 Two-thirds of traditional public schools lost enrollment between 2019 and 2023,
 according to federal data. Low fertility rates mean that the number of children in
 the United States is starting to shrink. At the same time, policymakers have
 introduced more competition than ever, meaning many families have options
 beyond their neighborhood school.




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                  Brian J. Stephens, who runs Caissa K12, argues that public school districts must offer
                  slicker tours, better customer service and a compelling argument that they are better
                  than the growing number of alternatives. Bryan Anselm for The New York Times



 Even public schools in Florida, one of only a handful of states with a growing
 population of children, are facing significant declines.
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8/5/25, 8:57 AM                                   Public Schools Try to Sell Themselves as More Students Use Vouchers - The New York Times

 Families have been attracted there by the warm climate, new housing construction
 and the increased ability to work remotely.

 They can now choose from an array of alternatives to public education. Florida has
 the nation’s largest school voucher program, known as a universal education
 savings account, and over 400,000 Florida children now use public dollars to pay
 for some form of private schooling.

 The program is part of Governor Ron DeSantis’s larger agenda to remake
 education. He has attacked what he calls liberal orthodoxy in the public school
 curriculum and restricted what schools can teach.

 In Florida, 71 percent of children continue to attend a district school. But that share
 has rapidly declined as enrollment in charter schools, home-schooling and private
 education increases.

 Similar demographic shifts could come soon to the rest of the country. Republican-
 leaning states are quickly expanding access to private-school vouchers, and, in
 July, President Trump signed into law the first national voucher program, funded
 by a federal tax credit. Some Democrats are urging their own party to reconsider
 private school choice, arguing that vouchers appeal to working-class voters.

 Orange County, Fla., home to Orlando, expects a 25 percent drop in district
 kindergarten enrollment this fall, even though the county’s school-age population
 has grown by 5 percent since 2020.

 Because schools are funded on a per-pupil basis, the loss of 3,000 of the district’s
 200,000 students could amount to a $28 million funding decrease. The district is
 considering consolidating and rezoning schools. It has also hired Caissa K12 to help
 it recruit back families tempted by other options.

 “We, ourselves, have to look at how we have not been able to tell our own story,”
 said Maria Vazquez, the superintendent.




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8/5/25, 8:57 AM                                   Public Schools Try to Sell Themselves as More Students Use Vouchers - The New York Times

 Mr. Stephens of Caissa argues that school districts must offer slicker tours, better
 customer service and a compelling argument that they are better than the growing
 number of alternatives.

 “The monopoly is over,” he said.




     Canvassers from Caissa K12 go door to door to recruit students in Orlando. Zack Wittman for The New York Times




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8/5/25, 8:57 AM                                   Public Schools Try to Sell Themselves as More Students Use Vouchers - The New York Times




     Caissa staff members, who can earn performance bonuses, might contact a parent 10, 20, even 30 times
     to prompt them to complete school-enrollment paperwork. Zack Wittman for The New York Times



 In mid-May, Caissa’s team of paid canvassers fanned out across Orange County,
 looking for parents. Caroline Christian, a 25-year-old with a degree in marketing,
 set up a table at a Boys and Girls Club after-school program.

 Destiny Arnold, a former police officer, looked for garden apartments with
 children’s bikes parked out front.

 The team also visited a homeless shelter and a church preschool.

 They gave parents fliers advertising the district’s arts and career-education
 programs. They also asked parents for their phone numbers. Caissa staff members,
 who can earn performance bonuses, might contact a parent 10, 20, even 30 times to
 prompt them to complete school-enrollment paperwork.


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8/5/25, 8:57 AM                                   Public Schools Try to Sell Themselves as More Students Use Vouchers - The New York Times

 They urge parents to visit district schools, no matter what they’ve heard or read
 about them. They also try to address what Mr. Stephens argues are misconceptions
 about the superiority of private education.

 “Take class size,” Mr. Stephens said. “There’s no solid data evidence that a smaller
 class size equals a better adult.”

 If a child whose parent has been in touch with Caissa shows up for public school in
 the fall, Caissa will be paid. In Orange County, the company will earn $935 for each
 former student the firm attracts back to the district, about 10 percent of state and
 local per-pupil funding for that child. The company has recruited 200 students in
 Newark since 2022, and last year it found about 1,000 for schools in Memphis,
 according to the districts. Those numbers can translate into millions in revenue for
 schools.




     Even public schools in Florida, one of only a handful of states with a growing population of children, are
     facing significant declines. Zack Wittman for The New York Times
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8/5/25, 8:57 AM                                   Public Schools Try to Sell Themselves as More Students Use Vouchers - The New York Times




     In Florida, 71 percent of children continue to attend a district school. But that share has rapidly declined
     as enrollment in charter schools, home-schooling and private education increases. Zack Wittman for The New
     York Times




 Some education experts have pushed for other responses to dropping enrollment,
 such as closing underutilized schools.

 When the Newark Board of Education debated a $277,000 contract with Caissa last
 year, one member, Crystal Williams, argued that paying consultants to pressure
 parents to come back to the district was an unwise use of funds. She said that it
 would divert money from students already in district classrooms.

 Caissa’s work can be slow going. At the Boys and Girls Club in Orlando, one mother
 who asked that her name not be included, quickly rejected the suggestion that her
 daughter should attend her zoned school in a low-income neighborhood. The
 mother believed the school was rife with behavioral problems.


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8/5/25, 8:57 AM                                   Public Schools Try to Sell Themselves as More Students Use Vouchers - The New York Times

 Caissa also conducts parent surveys for districts, which have shown that
 perceptions of safety and academic quality drive school-choice decisions.

 “Our job is to adjust the perception,” Mr. Stephens said. “There’s always some
 positive stuff in every school.”

 Mr. Stephens seems to fervently believe in the product he is selling. He grew up in
 Central Florida, and said public school helped him transcend a speech impediment.
 Like other advocates for public education, he sketches a vision of an ideal public
 school: a diverse setting in which children learn together across differences of
 race, class and religion, and where students with disabilities have a legal right to
 services.

 He added that his team had never encountered a district school that they wouldn’t
 push to parents, no matter how much it was struggling.

 It is true that a school’s quality and its enrollment trend line do not always match
 up. Three-quarters of Orange County public schools earned an A or B on Florida’s
 school-accountability score card this year. Dr. Vazquez, the superintendent, also
 touts the system’s early-childhood literacy reforms, and options for high school
 students to earn college credit.

 Nevertheless, of 132 district elementary schools, 107 have had declining enrollment
 since 2020. The trend cuts across demographic divides, affecting schools in
 Washington Shores, a low-income neighborhood west of downtown Orlando, and
 Doctor Phillips, an affluent area near the Universal theme park.

 Enrollment declines can push schools into a downward spiral, as funding plummets
 and enrichment programs are cut, driving even more families to withdraw.

 It is not clear whether students who use vouchers to leave public schools tend to
 fare better academically. Recent studies have come to varying conclusions.

 But in Florida, which offers families of all income levels $8,000 per child each year
 to pay for tuition, many parents seem enthusiastic about the wider array of choices
 they now have.

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                  Jasmine Robinson, a 36-year-old photographer, was in the process of moving her 6-
                  year-old, Arden, from public to private school using a voucher, because Arden had
                  announced, “I’m bored.” Zack Wittman for The New York Times



 At a playground overlooking Lake Eola, in downtown Orlando, almost all the
 parents said they were considering something other than their zoned public school.
 Many mentioned academic rigor.

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 Marcus Clarke, a 23-year-old who works in door-to-door sales, said he believed his
 toddler daughter would gain stronger reading and writing skills in a private
 elementary school with smaller class sizes.

 Jasmine Robinson, a 36-year-old photographer, was in the process of moving her 6-
 year-old, Arden, from public to private school using a voucher, because Arden had
 announced, “I’m bored.”

 Ms. Robinson said she believed district schools were overly focused on preparing
 children for standardized tests. She loved the fact that when she visited the private
 school, she saw first graders learning fractions.

 In public education, she said, “a lot of programs are not geared to really pushing
 the envelope with kids.”

 In Orlando, district leaders are trying to adapt as best they can, including by trying
 to access some of the voucher money themselves. This year, the district will begin
 accepting voucher dollars from home-schooled students, who can use the funds to
 pay for classes à la carte.

 One of the common arguments for private school choice is that competition could
 force public schools to improve their offerings. And indeed, Dr. Vazquez, the
 superintendent, is considering other big changes.

 Many parents fear middle school, so Dr. Vazquez is exploring creating more K-8 or
 6-12 schools. She is also investigating whether the district can start its own
 microschools built around themes attractive to parents, such as screen-free
 education.

 Hiring Caissa was an easy add-on to her agenda, she said, since the company’s fee
 will be drawn from the per-pupil revenue it generates. And school administrators,
 she readily admitted, are not proficient at sales or marketing.

 Mr. Stephens is. He calls himself “politically agnostic.” But as more states embrace
 vouchers, his business stands to benefit.


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8/5/25, 8:57 AM                                   Public Schools Try to Sell Themselves as More Students Use Vouchers - The New York Times

 “I believe in choice,” he said. “If you’re going to be a good American — Republican,
 Democrat, whatever you want to be — then let everybody compete.”

 Steven Rich and Francesca Paris contributed reporting. Alain Delaquérière contributed research.

 Dana Goldstein covers education and families for The Times.




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