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Sound of Ideas · Jun 30, 2026 · 51m

"The Big Shrink"

Cleveland's population was 930,000 at its height in 1950. Now, it's a little more than a third of that.

With that population loss, comes fewer students enrolled in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District. And those dropping enrollment numbers has led to the district needing to closure buildings and lay off hundreds of employees.

Cleveland is far from the only district experiencing this issue, which one education researcher has called "the big shrink."

Tuesday on the "Sound of Ideas" we'll learn more about what's happening with CMSD, and other districts across the state…