Where are they now? Urban public schools see steep fall in enrollment

Two million students disappeared from public and private school rolls in the 2021-22 school year, according to a Brookings report. Two years later, well after all schools had reopened,

2.1 million students are still "missing," reports Hechinger's Jill Barshay. "No one knows whether these kids are getting an education."

Before the pandemic, 85 percent of students attended traditional public schools, she writes. Almost 9 percent were in private schools. After the pandemic, the number fell below 80 percent. It "hasn't rebounded." Private school enrollment has held steady.

One third of students in mostly black districts are not in traditional public schools, Barshay notes. Students in high-poverty districts also are more likely to "lost" to their neighborhood schools.

Some of the missing students enrolled in charter schools, which saw their share of enrollment rise from 5 percent to 6 percent. "Virtual" schools' share rose form 0.7 percent to 1.2 percent. As vouchers expand, private schools may begin growing too, but there's not much evidence of that yet.

"Roughly 6 percent of students in the United States, or somewhere between 3 and 4 million, choose homeschooling — and that number seems to be growing," write homeschooling advocates Angela R. Watson and Matthew H. Lee in Education Next.

I suspect many homeschoolers and microschoolers are flying under the radar, and don't show up in official statistics.

School officials could who want to find out how well homeschooled students are doing could make public school curricula and state tests freely available to parents, write Watson and Lee. They could "provide access to college entrance exams or to college counseling at the local public school or public library." If they're worried that homeschooled students are isolated, "make public schools’ core courses, electives, and extracurriculars available to homeschooling families on an a la carte basis."

Falling birth rates are shrinking the pool of K-12 students, Barshay writes. "Between students gone missing, the choices some Black families and families in high-poverty districts are making and how many kids are being born, the public school landscape is shifting. Buckle up and get ready for mass public school closures."