School-Enrollment Data Confirm:
Forced-Unionism New Hampshire Isn’t Creating Enough Family-Supporting Jobs

From the National Right to Work Committee:

School-Enrollment Data Confirm Forced-Unionism New Hampshire Isn’t Creating Enough Family-Supporting Jobs

U.S. Census Bureau data released a few months ago showed a sharp contrast in K-12 school-aged (5-17 years old) population in Right to Work and forced-unionism states over the past decade.  From 2002 to 2012, the total number of school-aged people living in the 22 states that had Right to Work laws throughout the decade increased by 8.3%.  Meanwhile, the school-aged population of the 27 states that lacked Right to Work laws for the whole period fell by 4.0%.  (Indiana, which became a Right to Work state in 2012, is excluded.  Michigan is counted here as a forced-unionism state, because its Right to Work law did not take effect until this year.)

Forced-unionism New Hampshire’s school-aged population fell by an especially steep 11.1%.

This demographic indicator is an excellent gauge of a state’s success in furnishing economic opportunities for young adults who have children or plan to do so in the near future.  When a state’s school-aged population growth trails the national average by a wide margin, it logically follows that the state is under-performing when it comes to creating jobs that pay well enough to support a family, when the state’s cost of living is taken into account.

This week Mike Antonucci of the Education Intelligence Agency reported on the Granite State’s school enrollment trend from 2006 to 2011.  (See the link below.)  The education data examined by Antonucci confirm what the Census data already showed:  Forced-unionism New Hampshire simply isn’t creating enough family-supporting jobs.  Given that 18 of the bottom 19 states for school-aged population growth over the past decade are forced-unionism states (Hurricane Katrina-ravaged Louisiana is the sole exception), and all of the top eight are Right to Work states, it is very reasonable to believe passing a Right to Work law would help New Hampshire reverse its unfortunate trend:

New Hampshire school enrollment dropped almost 6 percent between the years 2006 and 2011, with the largest districts taking the brunt of it. Nine of the state’s 10 largest districts experienced steep declines in enrollment and, to a lesser extent, in teacher staffing.

Source: Northeast Demographic Shift Plagues New Hampshire | Intercepts

Read more at the National Right to Work Committee:

School-Enrollment Data Confirm Forced-Unionism New Hampshire Isn’t Creating Enough Family-Supporting Jobs