(NewsNation) — Prekindergarten through 12th-grade public school enrollment in the United States is still below pre-pandemic numbers, according to new federal data.
In a news release, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) revealed that 2022 enrollment of the country’s nearly 50 million public school students is 2% lower than it was in 2019.
“Total public school enrollment is still down, by about 1.2 million students, when compared with data collected just before the pandemic, but it was stable from 2021 to 2022,” the release reads.
California, Mississippi and New York saw declines in admission of at least 5% compared to data in 2019. Meanwhile, Idaho and North Dakota, saw enrollment increase about 2%.
The shift is due to “continuously changing school enrollment landscape,” including students opting for private schools and homeschooling, according to a report by “The 74,” a nonprofit news website that covers U.S. education.
“This national demographic decline has first-order implications for whether many schools can reasonably expect enrollment to rebound,” Thomas Dee, an economist at Stanford University, said during an interview with “The 74.” “As America gets older, we are seeing its implications for schools — enduring enrollment loss and the corresponding pressure to close schools and layoff staff.”