Back to School, But Which School?

It’s back to school season, which makes us want to buy a bouquet of freshly sharpened pencils. But as children go back to school, the place where they are attending might be different. Of all of the things that have changed for children since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, where they attend school is often at the top of the list. While many are now being homeschooled, some are now at private school or even different public schools. With AGS data and Chicago as an example, we look at how the city has changed for children.

While the greater Chicago area boasts many families with school aged children, the city itself doesn’t have very many. There are many areas with less than 5% of the population at school age. It is shocking, but not necessarily unexpected given high crime rates and work from home changes that allowed people to move to the suburbs.

That being said, the map below shows the change since 2000 in terms of the absolute number of students. What we see is a clear pattern over the last 20 years of a decline in enrollment in the central city which is due largely to families leaving for the suburbs. Population in central city has generally stayed relatively stable, meaning that this is a shift in the types of families living in the city.

When we look at private schools’ enrollment by the percentage of the student age population who are enrolled in these school, we see a clear pattern. The areas with the greatest loss of students are also the areas with the highest percentage of private school kids. If you live in the city, and are wealthy, then your children likely go to private school. If you don’t have the resources to send your child to private school, you will likely move out of the city to a better school district.