Enrollment in charter schools is up by about 1,000 though, so the overall decrease is only about half the 2,200 noted. And they say nothing about private schools.
I’m not surprised (I don’t think anyone is) by a decrease this year. But I would be quite surprised if it turned out that we had an overall decrease for 5 years in a row. After all, in 2001-2003, the city was still adding population pretty fast. I think the explanation is that public schools lost “market share” during this time to other types of schools.