Open Enrollment Plummeting at MPS

Last year, 71,489 students transferred to other school districts using the state open enrollment system, according to a research paper by the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau. Of that total 5,690 were Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) students who transferred to other school districts. Meanwhile there was an influx of 2,295 students transferring from other districts to MPS, for a net loss of 3,405 students.

That, however, represents a big drop — of 44% — in the annual net loss of students to MPS. Back in 2013-14 the system lost 6,891 students through open enrollment and gained just 731 students, for a net loss of 6,150 students. What has been happening since then is a fairly steady decrease in MPS students using open enrollment and an increase in students from other districts choosing to transfer to MPS. The decline in MPS students using open enrollment has occurred even while state participation grew by nearly 32% over this period. State participation has grown virtually every year since the program’s inception in 1998.

No one at MPS seems to know why this is happening or even that it it happening, as the district has not been tracking the information. Neither MPS superintendent Keith Posley nor MPS school board president Bob Peterson were aware of this decline in open enrollment for MPS.

The Wisconsin Department of Public Instructions (DPI) website provides data since the 1998/99 school year outlining how many students each district gained or lost through open enrollment. How many students transferred to individual districts from other individual districts is not provided by DPI, but Urban Milwaukee was able to obtain information from other school district sources. The information shows a number of trends happening:

• MPS Losses From Open Enrollment Dropped 50% From Fall 2013 To Fall 2020. In the 2013/14 school year, MPS had a net loss of 6150 students, but cut that number every year through 2020/21 when the net loss was 3066 students. In 2021/22 the loss increased to 3405. The reason for this is not known.
• MPS Leads State In Number Of Students Transferring Into Its Classrooms. Last year, MPS enrolled 2,285 in-person students from other districts, more than any other district offering in-person education. However, McFarland, which operates a virtual online program, enrolled 4,267 students. MPS offers numerous programs desired by suburban parents: College-bound programs, language immersion and Montessori, to name a few.
• But Other Districts Had A Higher Percentage Of Student Transfers. St. Francis received 468 students last year, mostly from MPS. With an enrollment of just over 1,000 students, over 45% of its students come from outside the district. 172 students transferred out of St. Francis.
• MPS Had The Highest Number of Students Transferring Out. Last year, 5,690 left the district. Next was Green Bay with 2,262 followed by Racine with 1,853.
• But Other Districts Had A Higher Percentage Of Students Transferring Out. Some rural school districts experience huge losses to nearby larger districts that offer more enriched programs. Palmyra-Eagle had a net loss of 393 students last year; the district educated only 595 students. (In 2020, the Palmyra- Eagle district asked to dissolve itself, but the state Legislature refused the request.) Meanwhile, neighboring Mukwonago, in Waukesha County, has more than 5,000 students and picked up over 600 students through open enrollment.
• A Single District Receives Nearly 20% Of All MPS Open Enrollment Transfers. Of the 1,339 students that transferred into Wauwatosa, over 1,000 came from MPS. Other suburban districts taking in high MPS transfers are West Allis–West Milwaukee, Greenfield and St. Francis. Those four districts account for over 45% of the transfers out of MPS.
• Suburbs Limit The Number Of Open Enrollment Students. In 2013/14, 75 students transferred into Whitefish Bay. Today there are fewer than 20. There is no requirement for districts to take in transfer students. If they do participate in open enrollment, districts can reject students who have been expelled or have disabilities that the accepting district does not service or have additional space for. A district can send a student back who becomes habitually truant.
• Not All Suburban Districts Have a Net Gain From Open Enrollment. Last year Cudahy gained 284 students, but lost 396 for a net loss of 112 students. Cudahy will close its middle school and make its present high school 7-12. Sixth graders will be sent to elementary schools. South Milwaukee High School is located only blocks from Cudahy. For students living in the southwestern Cudahy, South Milwaukee High School is much closer.
• Open Enrollment Can Be a Revolving Door. Greenfield received 443 students, the majority coming from MPS. Meanwhile 513 Greenfield students left the district looking for greener pastures.

During the same period that MPS saw open enrollment cut in half, statewide open enrollment grew from 50,075 in fall 2013 to 71,489 in fall 2021. This growth has occurred even as the total number of students in the state has declined.

“In Wisconsin, there has been a decline in overall K-12 enrollment of 5% over the past 13 years. The decline in K-12 enrollment was most evident at the high school level, with a 10% decline,” says SchoolMint, an educational support company, in an October 2020 study. Major contributing factors, the study noted, are “declining birthrates and net outward state migration.” But “One of the major reasons that certain districts have experienced enrollment declines is the impact of open enrollment laws in the state.”

While suburban districts often add to their racial diversity through open enrollment of students from MPS, Milwaukee is concerned if white students leave the district. Says Peterson: “Open enrollment has provided a means by which schools have further segregated.”

In fact, in 2003/04, 70% of MPS students using open enrollment were white, which declined to 54% in 2013/14 and 38% in 2021/22. However, the pool of white students in the district has meanwhile been decreasing, from 17% of MPS students in 2003/04 to 13.7% in 2013-14 to 9.6% in 2021-22.

For MPS to analyze its own data is difficult because it can’t get a list of students using open enrollment from DPI, says Posley. The superintendent says his biggest concern is the financial impact of open enrollment and how that affects the curriculum it can offer: “Can we have art, music, library, physical education? It hurts our offering when we see declining enrollment,” Posley notes.

The conservative, pro-vouchers Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty notes in a January 2021 article that “On average, students enroll out of high-poverty districts and into lower poverty districts… higher-spending districts see positive open enrollment growth.”

That is still happening for Milwaukee, but as the data shows, the loss due to open enrollment has declined dramatically.

MPS Open Enrollment Since 2013-14

Year	In	Out	Difference
21-22	2285	5690	-3405
20-21	2336	5402	-3066
19-20	2136	5417	-3281
18-19	1988	5386	-3398
17-18	1779	5724	-3945
16-17	1535	6120	-4585
15-16	1191	6438	-5247
14-15	988	6712	-5724
13-14	741	6891	-6150

Data from WI Department of Public Instruction