Broward County's school district may close or repurpose 10 more schools after losing more than 13,000 students in a single year — the latest sign that government-run education is collapsing under the weight of failed policies and fleeing families.

The numbers are stark. Compared to 2025, Broward began this school year with 13,475 fewer students — a 5.6% drop, according to an Aug. 10 memo from the Office of the Superintendent. The district already voted in January to close and consolidate six schools. Now another 10 are on the chopping block for 2026-2027 under the district's "Redefining our Schools" initiative, with board members floating the possibility of adding even more.

This isn't a Broward problem. It's a Florida problem — and a national one. The five largest school districts in the state have collectively shed roughly 67,000 non-charter students from the 2023-2024 year through 2025-2026, according to figures compiled by the Lee County school district. Miami-Dade alone lost 15,288 non-charter students between 2024-2025 and 2025-2026, gaining just 428 charter students in return.

Families are voting with their feet. Charter schools are absorbing a fraction of the exodus, but the vast majority of students are simply leaving the public system entirely — homeschooling, private schools, or moving out of districts altogether. Superintendent Howard Hepburn conceded during an Aug. 10 press conference that the district typically sees further enrollment drops in December, January, and February, adding: "Following that trend, we may see another dip in the spring as well."

The schools on the closure list are concentrated in elementary and middle grades: Banyan Elementary, Coral Springs Elementary, Silver Lakes Elementary, Dolphin Bay Elementary, Hollywood Park Elementary, Lloyd Estates Elementary, Oakridge Elementary, Forest Glen Middle, Walter C. Young Middle, and William E. Dandy Middle. Students would be reassigned to neighboring schools.

Meanwhile, the fragility of the government school model is on display elsewhere. In York County, Pennsylvania, Eastern York High School students were forced into remote learning after an EF-2 tornado with 120 mph winds tore off the school's roof and damaged the auditorium on Aug. 20, according to the York Daily Record. Roughly 50 student-athletes were in the gym at the time; none were injured. Superintendent Joseph Mancuso III said the district is working with a Colorado-based disaster restoration firm and will reassess the building Friday. York County issued a disaster emergency declaration to pursue state and federal aid.

Two districts, two crises, one theme: a system that can't keep students and can't withstand a storm. The Naples Daily News covered the enrollment collapse as a budget realignment story, burying the scale of the exodus. The York Daily Record framed the tornado damage as a resilience narrative, quoting Mancuso praising "flexibility and resilience" — the same language districts used to dress up remote learning failures during COVID.

Nobody in charge is asking why families are leaving. Nobody is reckoning with what decades of progressive curricula, administrative bloat, and contempt for parental input have done to trust in the system. The schools empty out, and the only answer from the board is another "initiative" with a slick name.

The question isn't whether Broward will close more schools. It's how many more districts will follow — and whether anyone in power will admit why.