Minnesota families increasingly choose alternatives to traditional public schools last fall as the coronavirus pandemic entered its third school year.
Enrollment soared in online programs, surged in private schools and continued to grow in charter schools, according to annual enrollment reports released Friday by the Minnesota Department of Education.
Traditional public schools, meanwhile, lost thousands more students, even as classes largely returned to normal, albeit with widespread mask mandates.
Public schools this school year were not bound by any state-ordered coronavirus mitigation measures, but many decided on their own to require students and staff to wear face coverings while infection rates were high.
That choice “was problematic for some of our school districts,” which saw students leave for competing schools, said Deb Henton, executive director of the Minnesota Association of School Administrators.
At the time of the official enrollment count last fall, Minnesota public school districts had 782,648 students in grades K-12. That’s down 2,697 students from last year and 23,232 – or 2.9 percent – from fall 2019, before the pandemic.
The rapid growth of publicly funded charter schools has somewhat slowed during the pandemic. They now enroll 65,971 students, which is up 551 over last year and 3,852 – 6.2 percent – over 2019.
ONLINE SCHOOLS
Those figures, however, overstate the number of students who actually occupy classrooms throughout the state.
Last school year, school districts were required to let students learn from home all year if they wanted to, but those students were not categorized separately in the state’s enrollment reports.
This school year, there was no requirement to offer distance learning. Yet, St. Paul and scores of other school districts got state approval to start their own online schools.
According to the state reports, the number of online providers jumped to 113 this year, from just 28 last year. They include 12 charter schools and 101 school districts.
Online schools this year enrolled 13,826 students, which is 7,482 more than last year and 10,579 more than 2019.
Henton thinks those online schools will outlast the pandemic because some parents have discovered their children thrive in that setting.
PRIVATE, HOME-SCHOOLS
Private schools, which were more likely to eschew masks and other pandemic health precautions, saw growth at every grade level this year, especially in elementary.
Their K-12 enrollment totaled 69,971, which is up 3,833 over last year and 4,314 – 6.6 percent – over the year before.
Home-schools account for 27,801 students K-12 this school year. Although that’s down 3,154 compared to last year, it’s up 7,100 – 34.3 percent – from the last year before the pandemic.
Henton expects the pandemic enrollment trends will hold for the next decade or so.
“I think that families have realized that there are a lot of options for students,” she said.
More parents are working from home, and some parts of the state have shortages in childcare.
“The conditions we’ve lived through through the pandemic have changed life for many people,” she said.
TWIN CITIES
St. Paul Public Schools is on a decade-long losing streak with enrollment, and the pandemic seems only to have accelerated the pace.
K-12 enrollment in the state’s second-largest district fell to 32,390 this school year. That’s down 1,345 from last year and 2,332 — 6.7 percent — since before the pandemic.
St. Paul is closing five schools for good in June and a sixth one year later.
Minneapolis Public Schools registered 29,253 students last fall, down 12.7 percent from 2019.
Teachers unions in both Twin Cities districts could go on strike as soon as March 8 as the unions press for more spending that district leaders say they can’t afford.
Education Commissioner Heather Mueller in a news release Friday said that enrollment shifts in the state “underscore the importance of stabilizing funding” for public schools.
Gov. Tim Walz has proposed increasing the state’s per-pupil funding formula by 2 percent this year, plus allocating additional money for English learners and special-education students.
“Throughout the pandemic, the needs of our students have continued to expand, and we must ensure our public schools have the funding and resources to support students and families,” Mueller said.