4 Million Fewer Kids in Public Schools by 2031

Parents Are Voting With Their Feet

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The numbers are in and the education establishment does not want to talk about them.

Public school enrollment peaked at 50.8 million students in 2019. The National Center for Education Statistics now projects it will fall to 46.9 million by 2031. That is nearly 4 million fewer children in a system that built its entire budget around keeping them there.

Ten states have already seen declines of more than 5%. California alone is projected to lose nearly 1 million public school students by 2031. Oregon, Colorado, New York, Hawaii and New Mexico are all staring down double digit losses.

Meanwhile 150 Chicago schools are operating at half capacity. 47 more are at one third capacity. Districts across the country are closing buildings, cutting staff and begging state legislatures not to cut funding for students who already left.

The system spent decades telling parents there was no alternative. Then it spent a decade pushing DEI, gender ideology and critical race theory into classrooms while test scores collapsed. Parents found alternatives.

Gatto saw it coming. The institution was never designed to serve children. It was designed to produce a specific kind of adult. Parents figured that out and started leaving.

Connecticut wants to make them ask permission first. Texas just paid 274,000 of them to go.

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They built it. Turns out families did not have to come.