Plummeting public school enrollment doesn’t appear to be returning to pre-pandemic numbers, causing some schools to risk financial crisis because school funding is tied to enrollment.

US public schools have lost more than 1.2 million students since 2020, according to a national survey which shows roughly a 2 percent drop across the country.

The trend is concentrated in major urban centers. Since 2020, New York City has lost approximately 50,000 students from their public school system, while the Los Angeles Unified School District’s non-charter schools lost approximately 43,000 students over the past two years. During the same time period, public schools in Chicago lost approximately 25,000 students.

Rural areas are facing the same problem. In Woodbury County, Iowa, student enrollment in the Westwood Community School District declined by more than 5 percent over the last two years, despite an influx of new residents moving in from larger cities during the pandemic.