Minnesota's public schools lost students again this year

Minnesota's public school enrollment slipped for the third consecutive year last fall, according to state data released Thursday, but the losses are not as steep as at the height of the pandemic.

The state's public schools lost about 500 students overall, including early childhood and prekindergarten programs — a slide of less than 1%, and a similar rate as the year before. The loss was most pronounced in K-12, where enrollment dropped by about 2,400 students.

In contrast, in fall 2020 public schools saw enrollment from early childhood through 12th grade fall by about 21,000, as more families chose private schools or kept children home.

Charter schools and private schools continued to see gains in enrollment last fall, although the rate of their growth has slowed.

The number of students being home-schooled, which increased during the pandemic, dropped last fall.

Administrators across the metro area say they've begun to more aggressively market their offerings as a direct result of families flocking to alternatives since the onset of the pandemic.

That's because school funding is directly tied to enrollment in Minnesota. Each student accounts for about $10,000, which means even a small percentage drop can mean a major budgetary loss for the state's school districts.

"We are in a very competitive marketplace, and it's taken us a number of years to really grasp that," said Jackie Turner, chief of operations and administration at St. Paul Public Schools. "From that standpoint, we are very similar to a Target or Walmart, a CVS or a Walgreens. We have to know there's someone across the street that's offering the same product. We have to offer it better."

The St. Paul district lost more than 3% of its enrollment in 2022, although losses were less pronounced than initially feared.

Some attribute steep enrollment losses in previous years to the tumultuous nature of school reopening plans after the worst of the pandemic. As parents navigated districts' blueprints for in-person instruction and masking policies, some gravitated toward private schools that were seen as more nimble.

"This year was more of what we call a predictable year in school," said Tim Benz, president of Minndependent, a coalition of about 150 private schools throughout the state.

Private school enrollment increased by nearly 4% in 2022. The previous year, enrollment had grown about 6%.

Benz partly attributed the stall in private school growth to predictability and the limited offerings in some grade levels and regions of the state. Many private schools serve students in kindergarten through sixth or eighth grade.

"There's a natural, what I call, transition, or jumping-off point at sixth and seventh grade and eighth and ninth grade," Benz said.

In St. Paul, Turner has also looked at those "jumping-off points" as a place where the district may lose families to open enrollment, charters or private schools.

Turner is part of a group of administrators, teachers and volunteers who have spent the last few months studying why families enroll in schools outside the St. Paul district. The committee began by identifying schools with low neighborhood participation and then surveyed those parents to ask what would make them consider St. Paul Public Schools.

"We've heard from families who say they want to talk to either a teacher or a parent at that school," Turner said. "Connection is really important."

The Fridley, Robbinsdale, Minneapolis and South St. Paul districts also counted some of the steepest year-over-year enrollment losses in the metro area, although those downturns are much smaller than they were in 2021.

The St. Anthony-New Brighton school district is the smallest geographic district in Minnesota. It serves about 1,800 students and saw its enrollment, from early childhood through 12th grade, grow by about 3%.

Superintendent Renee Corneille said accurately predicting enrollment is one of the "most important decisions we have to make in a given school year," because it defines the budget.

But because the state funding formula for schools isn't tied to inflation, Corneille said stability in enrollment numbers "is actually a detriment" — prompting the district to raise enrollment targets for middle and high schools this year.

"We opened those spots, and [students] came," Corneille said. "But that has an impact on our staff too – more students means more to account for."

John Morstad, executive director of finance and operations for Osseo Area Schools, said the district is seeing enrollment decline at some campuses in Brooklyn Park and Brooklyn Center and increase at others in Maple Grove where there is more new development.

"We're balancing both sides," he said, adding that enrollment has stayed relatively stable across the district.

The greater Minnesota picture

Larger districts outside of the Twin Cities have fared similarly to their metro-area counterparts.

In Rochester, enrollment declined for the third straight year — the district has lost about 600 students since 2020. At the same time, the district added about 100 students of color, who make up about 46% of its student population.

Rochester Superintendent Kent Pekel said the enrollment decline and increasing diversity reflect what district officials have forecast in planning over the past few years.

In St. Cloud, enrollment is down by nearly 3%, or on par with the losses in Minneapolis and St. Paul. The central Minnesota district of about 9,300 students has seen a steady decline in enrollment over the past decade.

"We are very similar demographically to those urban centers, and we're surrounded by suburbs. We are — for the lack of a better term — kind of easy pickings for charter schools, for open enrollment [to other districts]," St. Cloud Superintendent Laurie Putnam said.

Putnam attributes some of the decline to the district's high mobility rate because of homelessness and other socioeconomic factors. For example, 40% of students who start the year at North Junior High moved to a different school, district or schooling option before the end of the year.

District leaders across the state are working to bolster enrollment by better promoting offerings such as immersion programs and language courses, Advanced Placement and career courses and expanded opportunities for early learners.

"If we want families to choose our district, we have to work with our families as if we do," said Turner, the St. Paul administrator. "We have to market to our families as if we do."

Staff writers Jenny Berg and Trey Mewes contributed to this report.