Too many children and not enough schools was once the issue facing urban school districts across the United States at the turn of the twentieth century. The rise of industrialisation and the subsequent influx of workers and immigrants overwhelmed urban areas and school planners alike, with everyone demanding access to public schools. However, a shift in demographics, caused by de-industrialisation and suburbanisation, has relocated families and businesses outside of city centres, thus creating new efficiency and management pressures on public schools. This trend has been most remarkable in the Detroit Public School system (DPS), Michigan's largest school district. In the 1920s, the city's public school system was overloaded and could not construct schools fast enough to accommodate the increasing number of students. Now, the problem in Detroit is acute, and over the past ten years alone the student population has drastically declined; its schools face high drop-out, poor academic achievement and low graduation rates. Enrolment is expected to continue to fall over the coming years as families opt for alternatives to a public school system which is perceived to be failing. Consequently, despite the closure of over 100 schools since 2004, the city will have to condense the existing stock of buildings still further to accommodate the diminishing number of students at all levels of schooling. In addition, the remaining stock of buildings in Detroit, as in many urban areas, is plagued with leaky roofs, faulty plumbing, outdated resources and poor heating and cooling systems due to negligence and insufficient maintenance. The Detroit public school district is attempting to tackle this with an injection of federal funding and a comprehensive school facilities renovation plan. Money from a bond issue passed in November 2009 will be used to construct new replacement school buildings and renovate existing ones to efficiently transform the school district and the city. (Contains 4 footnotes.)