Hi, this is John Stone Street. If you ever wonder if your work matters, if you struggle to find joy and purpose in your job, like millions of Americans, even Christians do, get a copy of David Bonson's book, full-time, work and the meaning of life. You can get a copy this month with a gift to the Colson Center. Bonson recovers a Christian understanding of work,

ambition, money, retirement, and many more things. You'll learn why work is something that's inherently

valuable and what Christians have gotten wrong about things like ambition and retirement.

Why work is a central part of who we are as image bearers of God. It is a brilliant theological case about why our work

matters to God. Get a copy by making a gift of any amount to the Colson Center in February

by going to colsoncenter.org slash February. That's colsoncenter.org slash February.

Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look at an ever-changing culture through the lens of

unchanging truth.

For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street.

When Whitney Houston sang, I believe that children are a future, it might not have been

all that profound, but it was true.

A quick headcount of American schools and

colleges, in fact, proves just how true it was. Education Week recently reported that public schools

across the nation have been closing their doors due to a lack of students. The hundreds of school

closures in the pandemic years reflected a net loss of about 1.2 million students, and experts project that enrollment will fall another 2.5 million students by 2032.

Now, of course, this lack of students is at least partly due to parents opting for alternatives, homeschooling and private schools, and partly due to a

migration from urban to suburban school districts. But the most important factor is the consequence

of decades of low birth rates. Americans started having a lot fewer babies somewhere around 2007,

and fertility never recovered. Each year since, in fact, fewer and fewer

elementary, middle, and high schoolers have been boarding the school buses. And this year,

this American birth dearth turned 18. That means colleges and universities are now beginning to

fill this pinch. What's been called a demographic cliff will likely spell the end of a

...