{"id":446427,"date":"2025-12-14T12:14:26","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T12:14:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/446427\/"},"modified":"2025-12-14T12:14:26","modified_gmt":"2025-12-14T12:14:26","slug":"affordability-crisis-trump-immigration-crackdown-drive-nyc-public-school-enrollment-declines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/446427\/","title":{"rendered":"Affordability crisis, Trump immigration crackdown drive NYC public school enrollment declines"},"content":{"rendered":"

Buried in the news cycle on the night before Election Day, New York City released shocking new data: Close to 22,000 fewer students had enrolled in public schools<\/a> this fall.<\/p>\n

It was the first significant enrollment decline since the school system stabilized after the COVID-19 pandemic era, down by 2.4% citywide. The last time the number of students fell as much was an even greater drop during the 2021-22 school year: 3.8%<\/a>.<\/p>\n

School officials did not explain the preliminary data at the time, but Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos deduced in a recent interview<\/a> that it was tied to concerns about affordability and immigration. While young families have been steadily leaving New York due to the high costs of raising children, new students were moving in during the most recent immigration surge<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now, amid the Trump administration\u2019s crackdown, that surge is ebbing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen families are thriving and they can afford to live in New York City, then they select the public schools in their neighborhoods,\u201d Aviles-Ramos told the Daily News.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve done a lot to strengthen programming in our schools. But with [Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani\u2019s] affordability agenda, we should definitely see an increase in student enrollment, and hopefully support around our immigrant families and our undocumented families will make them feel comfortable and safe in New York City.\u201d<\/p>\n

While other considerations, such as declining birth rates and demand for more rigorous academics<\/a>, are likely factors as well, the stakes are high to stop the bleeding in a system where school budgets are funded per pupil. Principals who serve fewer students, and therefore receive less funding, can struggle to offer a variety of classes and extracurriculars.<\/p>\n

Since the pandemic, both Mayor Adams and Bill de Blasio have experimented with funding schools at the same levels if they enroll fewer students, but the policy has only been implemented on an ad hoc basis. Eventually, schools may face mergers with other programs \u2014 or outright closures \u2014 if the finances become untenable. Some already have<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"MigrantMigrant kids take a school bus in front of the Row Hotel that serves as migrant shelter on Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2023, in New York. (AP Photo\/Andres Kudacki)
\nAffordability<\/p>\n

It\u2019s no secret that New York City is an expensive place to raise a child. But the pace at which families are leaving has become one of the most talked-about issues in New York politics, fueled in no small part by Mamdani\u2019s successful campaign focus on affordability concerns.<\/p>\n

Research suggests the exodus is driven by the parents of young children<\/a>, though some families with school-aged kids appear to be moving out as well. The number of students discharged to schools outside the city spiked in 2021-22, the same school year as the last major citywide enrollment decline.<\/p>\n

Students in poverty were more likely to move to more affordable states and regions \u2014 Pennsylvania and the South \u2014 than within New York state, the data showed at the time. The chancellor\u2019s spokesperson did not provide the latest data in time for publication.<\/p>\n

That said, large shares of former public school parents have self-reported leaving the city. In a new survey of families who pulled their kids out of school, 40% said they moved out of the city altogether<\/a> \u2014 citing housing needs as often as educational concerns.<\/p>\n

\"Students<\/p>\n

Michael Loccisano\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Students attend class on the second to last day of school as New York City public schools prepare to wrap up the year at Yung Wing School P.S. 124 on June 24, 2022 in New York City. (Photo by Michael Loccisano\/Getty Images)
\nImmigration<\/p>\n

But as some families were leaving, a new group of students were enrolling in local schools, keeping systemwide enrollment afloat.<\/p>\n

At the height of the migrant crisis, while Mayor Adams warned the financial strain could \u201cdestroy\u201d New York City<\/a>, the chancellor\u2019s predecessor David Banks struck a different tone: He called their arrival a \u201cgodsend\u201d<\/a> at a critical moment when enrollment losses threatened to shutter a number of beloved schools.<\/p>\n

Since then, the national and local contexts have changed.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0pace of migration has slowed as entry at the southern border was tightened up during President Trump\u2019s second term.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, as part of the president\u2019s brosder crackdown on undocumented immigrants, federal officials have arrested at least 140 children in the New York City area through mid-October, according to federal data obtained by the Deportation Data Project at the University of California, Berkeley.<\/p>\n

\"EcuadorianEcuadorian Leidy Andrade rides a bus with her daughter as they return to a shelter in the Jamaica neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025, after picking up her daughter from a school in Brooklyn. Andrade and her family were recently relocated to a migrant shelter in Queens after the family shelter at Floyd Bennett Field was closed. (AP Photo\/Klaus Galiano)<\/p>\n

Anecdotally, other immigrant families have self-deported or moved out of New York, according to Aviles-Ramos, who before serving as chancellor was the point-person at the public schools on the migrant crisis<\/a>.\u00a0Local shelters limited their stays, then closed altogether<\/a>, sometimes driving families beyond the city limits.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe increase that we had a couple years after COVID was due to an influx of families seeking asylum, and we know that many of those families are leaving New York City,\u201d Aviles-Ramos said.\u00a0\u201cSo, there\u2019s no surprise that we\u2019re seeing a decline in enrollment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Public schools don\u2019t ask or track immigration status, but the limited data supports her reasoning: Enrollment plunged by 11% this year<\/a> at dozens of schools that were more likely to receive migrant students, compared to 2% citywide, according to a recent Chalkbeat analysis.<\/p>\n

While schools can\u2019t change federal policy, Aviles-Ramos said teachers and school staff are going the extra mile to keep immigrant families in school: Checking for ICE, escorting students, or otherwise easing their anxieties.<\/p>\n

A spokeswoman for the chancellor pointed to several initiatives \u2014 a buddy system between immigrant students and their classmates, staff teams known as \u201cDream Squads,\u201d and public school alumni known as \u201cImmigrant Ambassadors\u201d \u2014 that are all focused on supporting migrants.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are going outside the building and in the surrounding blocks and seeing if ICE is outside,\u201d Aviles-Ramos said. \u201cSome schools have walking \u2018school buses,\u2019 which is amazing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there were an opportunity to expand things like that,\u201d she added, \u201cwe would probably see an increase in attendance.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Buried in the news cycle on the night before Election Day, New York City released shocking new data:…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":446428,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,407,1370,728,405,403,5294,50,5226,5225,5228,5227,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-446427","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-education","10":"tag-latest-headlines","11":"tag-local-news","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-new-york-county","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-newyork","17":"tag-newyorkcity","18":"tag-ny","19":"tag-nyc","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-united-states-of-america","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","24":"tag-us","25":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115717870874961391","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446427\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/446428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}