Fresh data reveals a steeper decline in Colorado’s public-school enrollment, with over 10,000 fewer students this school year. It’s part of a trend that began during the pandemic, when schools lost 30,000 students and never recovered them.

The decline is especially acute in Denver Public Schools. The state’s largest district peaked in 2019 and has fallen since.

As The Denver Gazette reported, DPS lost 1,200 students — a 1.4% decline for this school year after immigrants “provided a temporary boost.” That “boost” of nearly 5,000 immigrant students allowed the district to conceal a general enrollment drop. Because state funding is calculated on a per-pupil basis, it also shielded DPS from more significant revenue losses.

Director of Enrollment Andrew Huber told the board in December that “a substantial net loss of new-to-country students” is behind the latest declines. It marks a “sharp reversal of the growth that we’ve enjoyed from new arrivals in the last two years,” he said, adding it “severely compound(s)” preexisting enrollment drops.

District officials claim declining enrollment is costing the district $6.2 million in state dollars — down from the $9 million they cited just last month.

At the time, they estimated an $18 million loss. “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,” The Denver Gazette reported.

Concerned taxpayers are right to wonder if there’s funny-money math going on. This is the district that carries $4.07 billion in long-term liabilities — dwarfing its assets and $1.5 billion budget.

During a December audit presentation, staff showed board members only bar graphs comparing assets and liabilities without dollar amounts.

It’s also worth recalling The Denver Gazette’s investigation that discovered $1 billion of the district’s balance sheet stems from a DPS property scheme. Since 1984, the district has transferred school buildings to a shell corporation, which leased them back for hundreds of millions of dollars — secretly dodging Colorado’s constitutional mandate that voters approve new debt.

No wonder parents don’t trust the district.

While DPS stresses over enrollment and resulting money woes, the state’s per-pupil funding keeps rising — now at $11,452, a 35% increase since 2020.

Even more critical for parents is academic failure in Denver schools. Two-thirds of DPS students in grades K-8 don’t meet basic math standards; 58% aren’t proficient in reading and writing. Black and brown students are being left further behind.

DPS’s latest accreditation score from the Colorado Department of Education is 57.6% — barely entering “green” territory, but still an F. The calculation includes a 43.1% average for high school achievement. What good is a 79% “historic” graduation rate if students are left unprepared for life after graduation?

School safety and discipline remain huge concerns for parents, alongside leadership failures. They’re still wondering what DPS is doing about them.

Enrollment is the ultimate accountability measure. Demographic changes and gentrification contribute, but parents are voting with their feet by choosing options like charters and homeschooling.

Rather than fret over lost immigrant students and funding, Superintendent Alex Marrero and the board should view this as an opportunity to ask what would make parents stay — or come back.

The answer starts with academic results, financial transparency and safe schools. The sooner leadership gets it, the sooner the exodus will recede.