Axios Twin Cities
May 29, 2025
1 big thing: The school districts we flock to
Nearly 44,000 Twin Cities students crossed over into another district to attend school in 2024-25 — a number that has grown every year for at least a decade, according to an Axios analysis.
Why it matters: The steady rise of "open enrollment" is the result of years of work by Minnesota policymakers to give parents more control over where to send their kids to school.
- These policies give districts a powerful financial incentive to compete with each other to attract families: Each new student brings additional state funding, and each student lost comes at a cost.
Stunning stats: Nearly 40% of Minnetonka Public Schools' students live in other districts, as do roughly a third of the students attending Fridley, Orono, Columbia Heights, Mahtomedi, St. Anthony and Hopkins schools.
Case in point: Open enrollment has helped Minnetonka grow from a district of under 7,700 students two decades ago to more than 11,000 today.
- Funding gained from this student influx has helped "keep our district's programs at the level that our community has been used to seeing them," school board member Patrick Lee-O'Halloran said at a 2024 meeting.
Friction point: There's not enough school funding to go around, which raises the stakes of this competition between schools, Burnsville-Eagan-Savage district spokesperson Aaron Tinklenberg told Axios.
- That's been trying for districts like Minneapolis Public Schools. Though MPS' overall enrollment has stabilized, its steep open enrollment losses have complicated a precarious budget situation.
How it works: State law lets parents apply for open enrollment in any district so long as the parent is willing to provide transportation.
- Districts can use a lottery when applications exceed available seats, though they must give admissions preferences to siblings and staff members' children.
2. Plus: How open enrollment reshapes Twin Cities schools
Research has shown racial segregation is worsening in Twin Cities schools, and critics fear open enrollment is one reason why.
Between the lines: The Institute on Metropolitan Opportunity's most recent analysis found that in 2009-10, 36% of white open-enrolled children moved to a more-segregated district.
- That's compared to 19% of white children whose parents chose more-integrated settings, the institute's director, University of Minnesota law professor Myron Orfield, told Axios.
Catch up quick: The number of open-enrolled students statewide has grown 78% since Orfield's study of 2010 data — and though he hasn't crunched recent numbers, he fears the trend toward segregation is increasing.
Yes, but: In Minnetonka, school officials have downplayed the effect of race on families' enrollment decisions. District spokesperson JacQui Getty told Axios most parents choose the district for the quality of its programming.
Zoom out: In the Twin Cities, districts' main publicly funded competitors are still charter schools — tuition-free schools run by nonprofits. Charters in the metro enroll more than 62,000 students.
Reality check: Districts that see higher numbers of students leave via open enrollment are not necessarily "undesirable," Tinklenberg argued.
- Burnsville has seen greater net losses to open enrollment than any other district outside Minneapolis, but its finances are relatively stable and it has beat overall enrollment projections in four of the last five years, he said.
3. The Spoon: The Guthrie's comeback
4. The Wolves are out. Here's what's next.
Axios Twin Cities
