‘This is not sustainable’: Families with young kids are fleeing NYC’s high cost of living, and the schools are emptying out

If you were lucky enough to grow up in the New York City school system, you more likely than not came across the story of Claudia and Jamie Kincaid in the children’s classic From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, in which the two young children, yearning to leave their self-described dull Connecticut suburb, make their way to New York City and hide out in the Met Museum. And if you were lucky enough to have grown up in New York, you didn’t have to imagine the wonder and awe the two children had in the museum after hours: You likely went on many a school trip there and mapped out how you would evade security guards. (You know, just in case.)

Well, nearly 60 years after the publication of E.L. Konigsburg’s book about two kids running toward the city and away from their suburb-living parents, there are increasing signs of the complete opposite occurring: Parents are taking their kids out of the New York City school system, and out of New York City entirely, and heading for the burbs, thanks to the increased cost of raising a child here. Families with young children are leaving New York City at more than twice the rate of households without them, and the public school system is shrinking as a result.

A decade ago, the city had over 1 million public school students, but this year it has 885,000, City Comptroller Mark Levine said in a social media post on X—and he expects another........

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