More students equals more money with open enrollment

Three-month period begins today

Today begins the annual fight to attract new students for Wisconsin school districts.

Today begins open enrollment for Wisconsin public schools.

It’s the annual, three-month period to boost numbers in order to collect the revenue that comes with those students.

“The challenge becomes,” La Crosse school district superintendent Randy Nelson admitted, “when there aren’t new dollars coming into education, and our caps are pretty much frozen, the only way to increase revenue is to bring in new students.

But it’s not simply about money, Nelson says. It’s also to provide convenience and opportunity.

“A lot of our parents that might live in some of the neighboring communities, but they commute into La Crosse,” Nelson explains, “and in some cases, it’s a matter of convenience that they can drop their child off in La Crosse to school and pick them up on their way home, as well.”

Nelson says typically La Crosse brings in more students than it loses to other districts every year.

This year, about 300 are attending from outside the district, while around 250 leave La Crosse to attend school elsewhere. 

Nelson admits it can be a bit of a competition to attract as many kids from outside the district as possible.

“The competition certainly is there,” La Crosse School District superintendent Randy Nelson said. “It would be silly to say that it’s not there. But it’s friendly competition. It’s good competition.

“We collaborate still, a lot, with other school districts.”

While, in general, the open enrollment to other districts ends in three months, in some cases, students can enroll outside their district year round.