NYC public school enrollment plummeting at alarming rate even with spending on the rise

School’s out.Enrollment in New York City public schools has taken a nosedive, dropping by nearly 22,000 students last year alone — in the steepest drop since the COVID pandemic, according to a new report.The sobering study, released Thursday by City Comptroller Mark Levine, shows the number of Big Apple K-12 students plummeted by a whopping 19% — or nearly 187,000 students — since the 2013-14 school year.And there’s no end in sight.Total enrollment is projected to decline by another 128,000 over the next decade amid a decline in birthrates, the analysis noted.The Big Apple’s sky-high cost of living has also been a major factor in the decline, Levine emphasized.“Declining school enrollment is not only a challenge for our education system – it raises fundamental questions about affordability, the ability of young families to build a future in New York and the kind of city we want to be,” Levine said.At the same time, the city Department of Education spends $44,000 per student — more than any large school district in the country — despite mediocre to poor results on standardized math and reading tests.Only half of public school students in 3rd-8th grade scored proficient on the most recent state English Language Arts/reading exam, a drop of six points.Forty three percent flunked the standardized math exam while just 57% scored proficient.The comptroller’s analysis shows:Even with the early childhood education expansion in pre-K and 3-K, total enrollment cratered, resulting in 147,930 fewer students between 2013-14 to last year, the comptroller’s office noted.Over that period, enrollment in 3K and Pre-K increased by nearly 40,000 students, to 94,726 in the 2025-26 school year.Overall enrollment, however, has sunk from more than 1 million students to under 885,000 students.There are 219 schools with fewer than 200 students, and many can’t even field a sports team or offer advanced placement courses, Levine has said.Levine’s report did not i...