According to data from the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC), the enrollment of students in California’s public schools has been steadily declining since 2013, a trend that is expected to further intensify over the next decade.
The institute’s report for June highlighted that over the past decade, student enrollment in California’s public schools has decreased by 6%, with a projected additional 12% decline by 2034.
The Los Angeles area saw the largest decrease in student enrollment from 2013 to 2023, with a 15.2% reduction; followed by the Sierra Nevada region and the Bay Area in central and eastern California, where enrollment dropped by 9.5% and 8.2%, respectively.
Currently, the total enrollment in California’s public schools is approximately 5.85 million, a decrease from 6.23 million in the 2013-2014 school year.
There are several reasons behind this change, one being the mass exodus of families from California since the COVID-19 pandemic. According to U.S. Census data, from April 2020 to July 2022, about 700,000 more people left California than those who relocated to the state.
Another contributing factor is the decline in birth rates. The PPIC revealed in a 2023 report that California’s birth rate has dropped to its lowest in a century, decreasing from 613,000 newborns annually in 1992 to 420,000 in 2021.
The trend of decreasing student numbers began during the outbreak of the pandemic at the end of 2019. PPIC stated that from late 2019 to May 2023, California’s public schools lost 310,000 students.
Additionally, dissatisfaction among parents regarding the quality of education their children receive is another reason for the decline in student numbers.
PPIC’s “Californians and Education” survey this year showed that 47% of residents believe the quality of education in California’s K-12 public schools has declined in recent years.
Nathan Pierce, Executive Director of Family Protection Ministries, stated, “Historically, parents often choose to withdraw their children from public schools to personally teach them values, whether for religious or other reasons.” This California organization has been advocating for homeschooling since 1986.
Pierce recently told Epoch Times that an increasing number of parents are choosing to pull their children out of school due to dissatisfaction with the curriculum, not just for religious reasons. Reports from the Idaho Freedom Foundation and Claremont Institute on the California education system suggest that some parents oppose curricula such as Restorative Justice, Social Emotional Learning, and queer theory.
Pierce also highlighted bullying issues and the lack of quality education options for children with special needs as other reasons why parents are opting for homeschooling.
According to data from the Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy, in the spring of 2020, 8.6% of families in California opted for homeschooling during the pandemic, a figure that remained at 8.7% in the fall.
For the 2020-2021 school year, over 59,000 students in California received homeschooling. As the pandemic receded, the number of students opting for homeschooling decreased to about 47,000.
In California, homeschooled students represent less than 1% of total enrollment, with 80% of students attending public schools, 11% in charter schools, and 8% in private schools.
Given the close link between district funding and student attendance, the institute reminds California legislators to consider possible “unintended consequences” when implementing measures to alleviate the economic pressure on districts facing declining enrollment, particularly in affluent areas.
The PPIC report highlighted that providing additional funding to districts with declining student numbers may shift state government support from inland regions to coastal regions, despite the higher average income in coastal areas.
The report suggests that the state government needs to carefully balance the student needs of different regions, each of which may experience varying enrollment trends, with some growing and others declining.
The decrease in enrollment numbers has also directly impacted the teaching workforce. EdSource, an education news website, reported that in the spring of this year, 100 districts in California issued layoff notices to 1,900 teachers, a number that is fifteen times higher than the previous spring when only 124 teachers received such notices.