Jim Stergios, of the Boston-based Pioneer Institute, notes that K-12 in New England will face a a demographic challenge in the coming years. Simply put, the number of school-aged children is dropping in four of the six states . The most severe is Maine, in which there are 20% fewer first-grade students than 12th-grade students.

This would be a great time for policy makers in those states to talk about changing education to serve children, not systems (employees, school boards, buildings, etc.). Anyone want to place a bet that will happen?