Public school enrollment drops dramatically.
NEW YORK (PNN) - May 9, 2026 - As New York City’s new Marxist Mayor Zohran Mamdani implements his unAmerikan Socialist policies, there has been a lot of talk about wealthy people fleeing the city, but that is only part of the story.
Everything is connected on some level. As people leave the city, the number of children enrolled in city public schools is going to drop, which will have other rippling effects.
At some point, too much of the foundation is eroded away and things start to crumble. Then the real problems begin.
A Fox News report indicates that New York City’s declining public school enrollment projections show a loss of over 150,000 students more as population declines.
According to a statistical forecasting prepared for the New York City School Construction Authority, New York City is projected to lose thousands of students in the 2034-35 school year.
“Enrollment is projected to be 721,251 in 2034-35, which would be a decline of 153,000 students from the 2024-25 enrollment,” the outlet reported.
“Over the next ten years, enrollments are projected to decline in each of the five boroughs. Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx are projected to have the largest declines in the next ten years, losing 45,000, 43,000, and 35,000 students, respectively,” it added.
The projected shortfall was attributed to continuing falling birthrates, an exodus of residents, and an aging population. “Statistical Forecasting was retained by the New York City School Construction Authority (“SCA”) to perform enrollment projections for the New York City Public Schools for the ten-year period beginning with the 2025-26 school year and ending in 2034-35,” the document states.
New York City public schools lost 22,000 students this year from last year’s 906,248 students. According to preliminary Department of Education data, a total of 884,400 students were enrolled in the city’s traditional public schools. NYC had more than 1,002,000 students enrolled at the start of the 2019-2020 school year, meaning it has since lost more than 117,000.
New York City currently spends more per school student than any other place in the country and gets mediocre to poor results on reading and math.
As the population shrinks, so will the tax base that feeds the city’s education beast.