Altered landscape: Education in Tampa Bay is poised to recover, although what that looks like remains unclear At the end of 2020, Tampa was named the ninth-fastestgrowing city in the United States and the Tampa Bay region itself is growing by about 2% per year, outpacing the 1.5% national average. There are a number of reasons for that strong population expansion but one key factor is education and in Tampa Bay, education is world-class. Furthermore, the cultural dynamism and probusiness ethos of the community means that many graduates are able to remain in the region after college to enter high-paying jobs. Tampa’s diverse economy also ensures that college is not the only option, with ever more opportunities for workforce training, trade schools and apprenticeships. But education at all levels faced an unprecedented challenge in early 2020 with the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, schools have pivoted to remote learning, have dealt with declining enrollments in some cases, although not as severe as many had expected, and are now preparing to move back to inperson learning. What the future ultimately looks like remains to be seen but the landscape, nonetheless, has been permanently altered. 146
| Invest: Tampa Bay 2021 | EDUCATION
Landscape The Tampa Bay region has a variety of four-year colleges, two law schools, four community colleges and a state-run primary and secondary education system. According to Niche, the Pinellas County Schools District in Largo is No. 1 in Tampa Bay, followed by Hillsborough County Public Schools and Pasco County School District in Land o’ Lakes. In terms of further education, most bachelor’s degrees are awarded in Business, followed by Health, Social Sciences, Biology and Psychology. Almost half of all associate degrees awarded in the region are in Liberal Arts and Sciences. Like all economic sectors, the education sector found itself having to deal with the fallout from the pandemic. With students across the board forced to suddenly learn from home, barriers such as lack of equipment, lack of focus and even staff burnout plagued the system in the early months of the outbreak. While some K-12 students have since switched from public to private school or even to permanent home schooling, a February report by the Tampa Bay Times said that around 90,000 Florida students simply dropped off the system, with no education provided to them at all. ( )
