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Last week Jackson Public Schools announced a plan to close 16 schools “due to declining enrollment.”

“The school district’s student decline tracks with overall population declines in the City of Jackson,” reported Mississippi Today, adding that the capital city is “the fastest-shrinking city with at least 50,000 residents in the United States.”

Once upon a time when the late Leland Speed served as executive director of the Mississippi Development Authority, he brought Jack Schultz to Jackson to discuss rural prosperity. Schultz, a highly successful entrepreneur and economic developer, spent three years researching why some towns and areas across America prospered and others did not. He revealed his findings in his book “Boomtown USA: The 7 ½ keys to Big Success in Small Towns.”

He also revealed three indicators common to most prospering areas – population growth, job growth and per capita income growth. Of these, he said in Jackson, population growth is the most indicative of prosperity because people move into areas with economic opportunity and good quality of life.

Regrettably, Jackson’s population decline is not unique in Mississippi. Towns and counties in the Delta region have suffered significant population losses for decades. More recently rural towns and counties across the state have begun losing population. Since 2010, most of our counties lost population.

Consequently, Mississippi’s overall population growth has stagnated with the most recent Census Bureau report showing total population has declined slightly since 2020.

The good news for Mississippi is that growth has occurred in the other two indicators Schultz revealed. Jobs have increased as has per capita income.

So why are we still losing population?

As Schultz noted there are other factors that matter, particularly quality of life factors. These include the status of schools, crime, infrastructure, housing, healthcare and recreation. Commuting times and access to child care are other factors he noted.

But the biggest factor may be the lack of a booming urban center to retain our best and brightest. Brain drain reports cite the attractiveness of out-of-state urban centers to bright young people.

Back in 2003 Dr. Art Cosby, then head of the Social Science Research Center at Mississippi State University, discussed this factor. In a special presentation to the IHL Board, Cosby pointed to numerous studies showing that few students in the West, Northeast, Midwest, and other parts of the nation desired to live in the South. On the other hand, he said, most top Mississippi graduates would like to live here – if they could find jobs like they can in Atlanta, Dallas, Nashville, etc.

Hmmm.

State efforts to resolve the issues behind Jackson’s population decline can help all of Mississippi.

Crawford is a syndicated columnist from Jackson.