The question of whether a Minnesota school has taken its open enrollment practice too far made headlines this week. The Minnesota Department of Education says that open enrollment is Minnesota’s public school choice option that allows students and parents to have access to schools that are not within their resident district.

Fairmont Area Schools Superintendent Joe Brown, who previously spent time in the Iowa Senate, shared that Minnesota and Iowa were the two first states in the country to approve open enrollment in 1984.

Brown said he was an early supporter of the idea of open enrollment, pointing out that no one mandates where people go to church or buy groceries, but they used to mandate where children attended school.

“I believe in competition. I think schools should compete. When schools compete, schools get better,” Brown said.

However, Minnetonka Public Schools is under scrutiny of the state Department of Education for aggressively pursuing nonresident students. The Star Tribune reported that the superintendent has been asked to supply documents showing Minnetonka is complying with the state laws.

“We don’t aggressively market our district. We don’t send letters out or advertise,” Brown explained.

However, as Brown previously said, he does believe in competition. He pointed out that when families are looking to move, they often times look at the quality of the schools in the area, the programs they offer and what the reputation of the district is.

“Regardless of where you reside, I think parents should have the right to send their children to any school of their choice,” Brown said.

Brown pointed out that are many options in the area with several high schools in the county, not to mention a variety of private schools as well.

“From an enrollment standpoint, would I like for everyone to come here and stay here? Yes, but more importantly, people need to make choices where they think it’s in the best interest of their children to go,” Brown said.

This school year in the Fairmont School District, 204 students are open enrolled in, which is 12.2 percent of the 1,675 students in the district. However, a slightly higher number, 216, open enroll outside of the Fairmont district.

Reasons for open enrolling in or out of a district can vary. Some of the most common reasons are location, family separations, college classes and other special classes offered.

There are 87 students in the Fairmont school district who open enroll to Martin County West schools. Of the 87, 47 have addresses in either Ceylon or Dunnell. Fairmont and Ceylon schools merged in 1996.

Brown explained that administration assistants at each school building in Fairmont keep track of the reason why students and families choose to open enroll in or out, if it’s provided, on the state form. All students who open enroll must fill out paperwork provided by the Minnesota Department of Education.

Brown said they also keep track of each student’s MARSS number, which follows them wherever they go, grades K-12.

“The reason for that is that the state doesn’t want to double pay,” Brown explained.

The topic of open enrollment can be controversial because a district generates money per pupil.

A high school student in Minnesota generates $10,000 a year and an elementary student generates about $7,000. Public schools in Minnesota get $109,000 to get a student through grades K-12.

Brown needs to approve each of the open enrollments to Fairmont. Though he can deny it, he said it is not Fairmont’s practice to do that. A district can, however, deny open enrollment to a student if they are full.

Before the start of this school year, Granada-Huntley-East Chain school was considering closing their open enrollment after the state recommended deadline of Jan. 15, Superintendent Doug Storbeck explained.

“We do have a resolution written up that if we do get to the point where we have too many students, we don’t want to overwhelm our teachers. That’s where a lottery process would come into place,” Storbeck said.

The Granada-Huntley-East Chain School district has seen a significant increase in enrollment over the past several years. At the end of the 2013-2014 school year, there were 189 students and by the 2018-2019 school year, there were 304.

Storbeck said it’s important to find a balance because while they want to be growing, they also want to provide a quality education to all students, which could decline with too many students in a classroom. However, Storbeck stressed that’s not a problem right now.

“We haven’t gotten to the point where we need to close enrollment and do a lottery. We accept anybody who wants to come here and we do have spots available,” Storbeck said.

There is an open enrollment deadline set by the state of Jan. 15 that school districts can follow. However, Brown said that all districts in the area allow students at any time.

When it comes to bussing, a district has no requirement to bus in a student who is open enrolled.

Fairmont’s busses go into other neighboring districts, and other districts, including GHEC, Truman and MCW, come into Fairmont’s district to pick up or drop off other students as well.

“We work very closely with our private schools. We do the bussing for them, we provide special education services. We also provide food services and allow them to come take band and orchestra lessons here,” Brown said of St. Paul Lutheran and St. John Vianney schools in Fairmont.

Brown also said that the neighboring school districts all have a good relationship with each other.