The pandemic has supercharged a trend that has plagued districts across the U.S. for years — students are fleeing public schools.

Why it matters: Public schools lose funding as they lose students, and some schools have been forced to shutter altogether.

That disadvantages the many millions of students — typically lower-income students in cities — who can't turn to private schools or homeschooling.

By the numbers: Public schools lost more than a million students from fall 2019 to fall 2020, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Enrollment fell from 50.8 million to 49.4 million.

What's happening: Over the last decade, a number of states, including Michigan and New Hampshire, saw enrollment fall primarily due to declining birthrates. Others, like Texas, saw numbers rise due to immigration.