America Vanishing Families, Shrinking Schools
New data shows unprecedented flight from big cities. BY STEVE MALANGA
P
ublic school districts in large cities, many facing budget squeezes from plunging enrollments driven by parental discontent over COVID-19 poli-
cies, are unlikely to find relief anytime soon. The latest census
data show that families with the preschool-age children who would form the next gen- eration of students are abandoning cities, especially big ones, at unprecedented levels. The combination
of outmigration and a slowdown in births is
accelerating a trend that emerged even before COVID-19: cities with fewer and fewer children as a percentage of the overall population. Though the trend is most pronounced in states where
population growth has lagged, like New York and Illinois, it’s also happening in growing places like Texas, suggest- ing a broad retrenchment by families with young children, especially to so-called “exurban” areas beyond cities and suburbs.
Struggling school districts from New York to Chicago to
Los Angeles have seen “massive” hemorrhaging of students, in the words of New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Since COVID-19, the under-5 population of large urban
areas has shrunk at about 6.1%, nearly twice the national rate.
The biggest declines are happening in cities in the mid-
Atlantic states (including New York, New Jersey, and Penn- sylvania), where the under-5 population has slumped 10.3% in urban counties, and on the West Coast, where it’s down 8.4% in the same areas. In the years leading up to 2020, the population of college-
educated households with no kids had soared in cities. Ris- ing urban disorder, growing homelessness, and extended school closures have sent families fleeing from cities. “We are in a very dangerous time right now that many
people are not realizing,” Adams said about last year’s school budget battles. The numbers suggest that the worst is yet to come. — City Journal
Mark Zuckerberg Spends $43 Million on Private Security As anti-police protests and riots
Yet he pumps millions into defunding the police.
BY ERIC MACK F
acebook’s parent company Meta has spent $43.4 million for
Mark Zuckerberg’s private security in just three years, while his family’s foun- dation pumped millions into groups supporting defunding of police. The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative has
donated at least $5.5 million to liberal activist organizations that are tied to defunding law enforcement, the New York Post reported, including: $3 million to PolicyLink, which seeks
to “diminish the role of policing in communities and empower alternative visions for public safety.” $2.5 million to Solidaire, which seeks
to defund the police through its “Anti- Police Terror Project” and boasts it
20 NEWSMAX | SEPTEMBER 2023
SAFETY Despite donating millions to defund the police initiatives, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg still maintains the use of bodyguards while jogging and going about his daily activities.
helped strip $18 million from the Oak- land, California, police budget. Meta, the company controlled by Zuckerberg — who has three daughters with wife Priscilla Chan — is raising its private security spending pretax from $10 million over the last several years to $14 million in 2023, according to com- pany filings.
roiled American cities and culture before the 2020 presidential election, Zuckerberg’s Center for Tech and Civic Life donated a reported $350 million in 47 states, according to National Review. “Zuckerbucks” became the phrase
used to refer to private entities that donated even more than Zuckerberg’s $350 million to fund government vote counts in 2020, the National Review reported. While the funds largely covered
masks and other resources to mitigate risks related to COVID-19, they were also used to place mail-in ballot drop boxes in key battleground states. Former President Donald Trump’s
campaign has long argued that the drop boxes, which have been called “Zuckerboxes,” were placed dispropor- tionately in Democrat strongholds.
ZUCKERBERG/PAUL ZINKEN/PICTURE ALLIANCE VIA GETTY IMAGES / SCHOOL/MAKEDA ART/SHUTTERSTOCK
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