Enrollment in public schools nationwide has drastically declined since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, dropping by more than 1.2 million students between the 2019-20 school year and the 2022-23 school year. For many school districts, student enrollment projections remain uncertain as families have become more comfortable shopping for other school options like virtual private schools or homeschooling co-ops. This continued decline in public school enrollment, which is more pronounced in urban school districts, will have serious impacts on school district finances.
As American Enterprise Institute’s Nat Malkus and doctoral student Cody Christensen pointed out in Education Next,
