About the Podcast

Across America, fewer children are entering public schools. Birth rates are falling, families are shrinking, and communities that once planned for continued growth are confronting a very different future: fewer students, tighter budgets, and more school buildings than they can afford to operate.

New Orleans faced this reality earlier than many cities.

The Future Is Smaller: What New Orleans Learned Before America Had To examines what the city’s experience can teach communities now grappling with declining enrollment and profound demographic change. Through original reporting, data, and conversations with families, educators, policy experts, civic leaders, and community members in New Orleans and across the country, the podcast explores some of the most consequential—and emotionally charged—decisions facing public education.

What happens when a city no longer has enough children to sustain all of its schools? Which schools merge or close, and who gets to decide? How can leaders act before financial pressures become a crisis? And how can communities protect students, preserve academic progress, and treat families with honesty and care?

From school closures and consolidations to enrollment forecasting and long-term planning, The Future Is Smaller moves beyond the question of whether school systems must change. It asks how they can adapt responsibly—and what those decisions reveal about the changing future of America’s cities.

Vote for our SXSW EDU Panel

Join journalist Jenny Dubin for a conversation with Dana Peterson, CEO of New Schools for New Orleans; Andy Rotherham, co-founder and senior partner at Bellwether; and Brandon Brown, CEO of The Mind Trust, as they explore one of the defining challenges facing public education: what happens when there are simply fewer children.

Drawing on lessons from New Orleans, Indianapolis, and communities across the country, the panel will examine how leaders can navigate school closures, mergers, and enrollment declines while protecting academic progress, using public resources wisely, and earning the trust of families. Together, these voices bring firsthand experience in making some of education’s most difficult—and most necessary—decisions.

Voting opens August 5 and closes August 23. Your support will help bring this timely national conversation to the SXSW EDU stage.