When California’s schools reopened their classrooms at the beginning of this school year, educators were confronted by a critical question: Where did all the students go? Since the beginning of the pandemic, California public schools have lost more than 4% of their enrollment, about 270,000 students. That’s a lot of kids — and a lot of funding for public schools. An exodus of low- to middle-income families being priced out of the state is probably one factor in the decline. But a statewide survey by Policy Analysis for California Education and the USC Rossier School of Education found that many families left their schools out of dissatisfaction with them. Twenty-seven percent of parents reported changing their children’s schools since the pandemic started, and another 28% said they were planning to do so. Those are record numbers, and they’re even higher in the Sacramento region: 31% of area parents surveyed reported switching schools, and an additional 40% said they were considering a switch in the near future.