Public school enrollment in New York City has been declining for several years. In 2020 and 2021, part of that trend could certainly be attributed to the pandemic and the shutdowns. Of course, the teachers’ unions in New York fought the longest and the hardest of almost any place in the nation to keep the schools closed. Why bother enrolling your child in a school they can’t go to? But the trend didn’t reverse once the pandemic receded. In fact, the situation has actually deteriorated further. And the latest data being reported by the city flags one of the biggest indicators of a significant change. New enrollment for kindergarten is now down by more than 10,000 pupils compared to the two years prior to the pandemic. So where are all of the children going? At the New York Post, the editorial board has a pretty good idea of what’s happening.
It’s no secret that the city’s schools have been shedding kids in droves for the past few years, yet new data — showing big drops in kindergarten enrollment — now highlight what’s behind the flight.
To be blunt: Traditional city public schools are failing to deliver for students; parents see it and are now avoiding them right from the start — with many opting for better-performing charter schools.
As The Post reported, more than 11,900 fewer kids signed up for kindergarten in the city’s regular schools last school year than in 2016-17.
That decrease of 11,900 students represents a 17 percent drop. Some areas are doing even worse. One district in the Bronx reported a 29 percent drop. That’s not a temporary glitch in the numbers. That’s a sign of migration, with parents taking their kids to charter schools if they have the money to do so.
And that’s not just a logical assumption being made. The enrollment numbers back it up. The city’s charter schools reported a corresponding increase of 20,000 more kindergarten enrollments. That’s an 18 percent increase over the same period. Others are enrolling their students in private schools or church schools, though similar enrollment numbers for those are not available. And, of course, many families have simply given up on the Big Apple and moved away.
And why wouldn’t they be making these choices? Standardized proficiency test scores in charter schools are as much as 20% higher on average. Catholic schools perform even better than that. In public schools, too many districts have schools where you’re lucky to find any students who meet the minimum proficiency in reading and math. And then there are safety concerns expressed by many parents when children are walking or taking the bus. New York, never a blissful haven of safety on the best of days, has gotten far worse in recent years. And all of this is happening while the city spends more money per public school than any other system in the country.
One of the biggest roadblocks is that there aren’t enough open seats in the charter schools for all of the families who want to make the switch. And that is by design, not by happenstance. The city actually puts a cap on the number of charter school seats that are allowed. They do this to prevent too many families from switching and leaving the public schools too empty to qualify for their funding. It’s a vicious trap. There are currently tens of thousands of students on the waiting lists for charter school enrollment.
The New York City public school system is a disgrace. But it didn’t have to be this way. Almost all of these problems are self-inflicted wounds that resulted from bad municipal policies enacted by progressive politicians who are more worried about “racial equity” than actual education. But it would be politically incorrect to fix any of this (not to mention how it would anger the teachers’ unions that fund all of the Democratic politicians), so nothing is done.
