Separate figures have shown there are many unfilled primary school places in England - more than 444,000 - either where parents are shunning unpopular schools or local child numbers are falling.
Unfilled private-school seats in urban areas are few (mostly in Catholic schools where parishioners moved to the suburbs).
"Bills were piling up along with the dust balls, wet sports clothes, unstrung rackets and interminable unfilled-out school forms," she says.
B3 EDUCATION B11 Empty Seats at Top Schools Dozens of seats in some of New York City's most sought-after high schools are unfilled because of the new high school admissions system, according to admissions data and interviews with principals and other school personnel.
Up to 30% of maths places on PGCE teacher training courses due to start in September remain unfilled, potentially leaving schools 700 recruits short next year.
Given universities have been stepping in at the last minute to take on unfilled places from schools, that safety net will not be there if higher education institutions start pulling out of teacher training completely.
Ministers and civil servants have been asked by the National Audit Office NAOO) to target spending on areas with the greatest need after discovering that a quarter of all places at the schools were unfilled in the first year the schools opened.
"Just four days ago the Government denied there was a problem with recruitment despite the fact that half of all our schools had unfilled positions at the start of the academic year and some pupils are now having to travel to other schools for their maths and English lessons due to teacher vacancies at their own.
Labour's Tristram Hunt said the number of schools with unfilled places represented a "damning indictment" of the overall policy.
But the number of complaints seemed certain to rise as parents reacted to the news that seats in popular schools remained unfilled after many children had been rejected.
