The sobering study, released Thursday by City Comptroller Mark Levine, shows the number of Big Apple K-12 students plummeted by a whopping 19% \u2014 or nearly 187,000 students \u2014 since the 2013-14 school year.<\/p>\n
And there\u2019s no end in sight.<\/p>\n
Total enrollment is projected to decline by another 128,000 over the next decade amid a decline in birthrates, the analysis noted.<\/p>\n
The Big Apple\u2019s sky-high cost of living has also been a major factor in the decline, Levine emphasized.<\/p>\n
\u201cDeclining school enrollment is not only a challenge for our education system \u2013 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,\u201d Levine said.<\/p>\n
At the same time, the city Department of Education spends $44,000 per student<\/a> \u2014 more than any large school district in the country \u2014 despite mediocre to poor results on standardized math and reading tests.<\/p>\n Only half of <\/a>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.<\/p>\n The comptroller\u2019s analysis shows:<\/p>\n The NYC Public School System saw its steepest drop in enrollment since the pandemic in the 2025-26 school year, with a drop of 21,793 students, or 3%.<\/p>\n Amid the enrollment decline, the city Department of Education is serving a greater share of students with special needs, more non-English speakers and one in 7, or 14%, who were housing insecure or living temporary housing.<\/p>\n The share of pupils who are black has shrunk from 26% of the student body in 2014 to 19% now.<\/p>\n The steepest drop in enrollment was between 5th grade and 6th grade, when parents need to decide where to send their kids to middle school.<\/p>\n Even enrollment in charter schools has tapered off, increasing no more than 4% annually in recent years. The state has imposed a cap that bars the opening of new charter schools in the city.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s office noted.<\/p>\n Over that period, enrollment in 3K and Pre-K increased by nearly 40,000 students, to 94,726 in the 2025-26 school year.<\/p>\n Overall enrollment, however, has sunk from more than 1 million students to under 885,000 students.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/sad-unhappy-teacher-empty-classroom-146877742.jpg\"){kind=spacer}
The number of students in the New York City Public Schools has plummeted by 19% since 2014. Robert Peak \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n