KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Charter schools are failing to stem a loss of students from the Kansas City school district’s boundaries.

The Kansas City Star reports that in the past year, more than a thousand students left the district for charter schools. At the same time, more than 500 students left charters for the district schools.

Charter schools, which are independent public schools with their own boards, now make up 40 percent of public school enrollment in the district. But their rise has not boosted public school enrollment in the district’s boundaries.

The combined district and charter enrollment has fallen from 36,353 in 2000, the first year of charters in Kansas City, to 24,435 in 2015.

Administrators say another problem is many students will transfer in the middle of the school year.