Since the pandemic, my columns have chronicled a steady downward trend in K-12 enrollment. Now, fresh data from the Colorado Department of Education confirms it’s only deepening.

K-12 enrollment is at its lowest in a decade. Just 870,793 students are enrolled in Colorado public schools — 42,440 fewer than in 2019-2020.

This year’s 1.2% drop of 10,272 students marks the greatest year-over-year decline since the pandemic cost 30,000 students in 2020-2021. Moreover, 138 of the state’s 178 school districts and Boards of Cooperative Educational Services saw declines — up from 119 last year.

Meanwhile, homeschool enrollment has jumped 19.5% since 2022. Online and charter schools enrolled 138,652 kids this school year.

Denver Public Schools offers a useful case study. As The Denver Gazette reported, Colorado’s largest district lost 1,200 students this year — a 1.4% drop, part of a steady decline since enrollment peaked in 2019.

Notably, the recent influx of immigrants “provided a temporary boost.”

Indeed, DPS long has depended on illegal immigration to pad enrollment and boost district budgets, as the state’s funding formula is largely based on pupils enrolled. In February 2025, DPS sued the Trump administration over ICE raids near schools, vainly trying to preserve its status quo. The district was crushed in federal court.

Last month, Enrollment Director Andrew Huber admitted that “a substantial net loss of new-to-country students” is driving DPS enrollment drops — a “sharp reversal of the growth that we’ve enjoyed from new arrivals in the last two years.” Huber noted the loss of undocumented students is “severely compounding our existing declining enrollment problem.”

In both 2024 and 2023, there was a net increase of just under 200. Last school year, 1,499 left while 1,693 arrived — a wash. This year, a net 742 have left.

Let’s be clear: DPS faces the same pressures as other districts. It was just able to hide a general enrollment drop behind 4,700 undocumented students.

Not anymore.

DPS, like other districts, insists this is devastating to their bottom lines. The district reports losing more than $6 million in state funding tied to declining enrollment.

“In December, officials estimated revenue loss at $18 million,” the paper reported. “But because of a practice known as ‘smoothing’ — which averages pupil counts over three years, rather than a single year — the immediate impact was estimated at $9 million.”

That $9 million estimate has mysteriously dropped to $6.2 million. An explanation was unavailable by deadline.

But here’s the thing: Average per-pupil funding has steadily risen in tandem with declining enrollment. In 2019-2020, it was $8,480. Today, it’s 35% higher — at $11,452.

Are school districts like Denver genuinely struggling, or are they unwilling to make the tough calls — like cutting spending, reducing administrative bloat or closing schools — and using enrollment declines as cover so the legislature keeps modifying the funding formula and boosting per-pupil spending?

Rather than ask to increase state funding, districts ought to ask why students are leaving in the first place. Yes, demographic changes and gentrification are part of it. But if charter, home, and online school enrollment are any indication, parents are increasingly walking away to make better choices for their kids.

Good for them.

The Colorado Education Association and prominent Democrats consistently back school board members who oppose — or are at least hostile to — school choice. That’s why they were so upset when Gov. Jared Polis announced Colorado would opt into a Trump administration school choice program.

Union bosses argue enrollment declines prove school choice costs traditional public schools. When a parent moves their child to a different option, the school no longer receives funding for that pupil.

They’ve got it backwards: School choice isn’t costing traditional public schools. Traditional public schools are costing students — in academics, safety and their future. And parents are responding.

Just 44.8% of K-8 students can read and write at grade level — stuck below the 45.8% proficiency rate before the pandemic. Math is worse: only 35.9% are proficient, barely above 34.7% in 2019. Six years out, students have hardly recovered to pre-COVID levels — and those were nothing to brag about. Fewer than half can read. Barely a third can do math.

Colorado’s graduation rate is at a record 85.6%, yet only 35.4% are proficient in math and 63.5% can read and write at grade level. What good is a diploma if graduates aren’t prepared for what’s next?

Meanwhile, parental rights are persistently under attack. Their daughters aren’t guaranteed safe spaces or sports free from biological males. Districts like Jeffco and DougCo keep facing sexual abuse allegations and arrests. Secrets are kept by teachers and counselors as students select different gender identities, names and pronouns without parental consent. DPS still can’t get its discipline and school safety policies in order. Cherry Creek Schools stand accused of fostering a hostile work environment. The list goes on.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Parents are fed up. They rightly love their children’s teachers, but they’re done with government dictating where and when their children can get an education and how they’ll be treated when they get there.

The message is clear: Trust families, not bureaucracies. Let’s fund students, not systems.

Jimmy Sengenberger is an investigative journalist, public speaker, and longtime local talk-radio host. Reach Jimmy online at Jimmysengenberger.com or on X (formerly Twitter) @SengCenter.