Even as student enrollment in Louisiana’s traditional public schools has steadily declined since the pandemic, charter schools have rebounded more quickly, growing overall over the past four years.
Still, charter schools in New Orleans and Baton Rouge, where charters are the most established, are often flat and declining. Two charter schools in Lafayette are responsible for the bulk of the statewide enrollment growth for that education sector.
While enrollment in charter schools grew by 1.6% statewide over the past year, those schools declined by almost 2% in Baton Rouge and New Orleans.
Overall public school enrollment statewide declined by 0.5%, while traditional public schools declined by twice that much, about 1%.
These trends are evident in official public school enrollment counts for Louisiana. Results from the latest count, taken in early October, were posted online last week.
LaMont Cole, a Metro Councilman and principal of CSAL Middle, a Baton Rouge charter school that opened 26 years ago, making it the oldest such school in Louisiana still operating, said he expects that some charter schools having enrollment trouble will rebound as the pandemic recedes into the background. But he said their academic performance will need to rebound too if they hope to remain open, especially given a school accountability system that will soon get tougher.
“Test scores have not been the greatest at some of the charter schools. That may hurt,” Cole said. “Folks are seeking performance to go back to the pre-COVID numbers and if that doesn’t happen, they’ll notice.”
Charter schools are public schools run privately via charters, or contracts. There are currently 147 charter schools operating across the state. Orleans and East Baton Rouge parishes have the most charter schools, 73 and 27, respectively.
Charter school students represented 13.8% of the 681,176 students enrolled in all Louisiana public schools on Oct. 1. The statewide total for all students is about 38,600 fewer students than were enrolled in fall 2019, a 5.4% decline. And that’s 4,400 fewer students than in fall 2022.
Declines occurred statewide every year of the pandemic. While the pace of decline has slowed, it has not disappeared.
Public school enrollment in the state peaked in 2015 at 725,606 students.
Enrollment numbers are calculated every Oct. 1 and Feb. 1 and are audited for accuracy. The counts drive the vast majority of the funding that Louisiana provides public schools via the state’s Minimum Foundation Program, or MFP. Each student represents about $5,000 apiece in state aid.
The East Baton Rouge Parish school system, with 40,443 students, retained its place as the second-largest traditional school district in the state. It trails far behind leading district Jefferson Parish, which had 47,712 students on its rolls on Oct. 1.
Both East Baton Rouge and Jefferson schools were little changed overall this past year, with East Baton Rouge dropping 217 students and Jefferson adding 283 students. Both districts, though, have lost a lot more students since fall 2019, declining by 2.9% and 5.6%, respectively. And if you remove the charter schools those districts sponsor, the four-year rate of decline grows to 10.4% and 10.2%, respectively.
Only five of the 69 traditional public school districts in the state are above their enrollment levels prior to the pandemic: Ascension, Livingston, Madison, West Baton Rouge parishes as well as Zachary.
Livingston leads the way. On Oct. 1, it had 27,105 students, almost 1,000 more than it had four years earlier. Ascension had 24,138 on its rolls on Oct. 1, about 700 more students than it had in fall 2019. Percentage-wise, West Baton Rouge showed the highest growth rate over the past four years, growing 7.89%.
Only 22 of the 69 traditional districts grew over the past year, with Calcasieu Parish adding the most, 521 students. St. John the Baptist Parish saw its rate of enrollment increase by 4.1%. Both school systems were hit hard by hurricanes: 2020’s Hurricane Laura in Calcasieu and Hurricane Ida the next year in St. John.
Other parishes hard-hit by recent hurricanes — Lafourche, St. Charles and Terrebonne — are still seeing declining public school enrollment.
Charter schools, especially in their initial years, are engineered to grow. They typically are authorized to start small and add grades over time. The most popular charter schools have become among the largest schools in Louisiana.
The largest school of any type is University View Academy, which is based in Baton Rouge but operates statewide. This virtual charter school educates about 3,700 children in every parish in grades kindergarten to 12.
Acadiana Renaissance Charter Academy, a brick-and-mortar charter school located near Lafayette, leaped into second place in the state in enrollment this past year. Its current enrollment of almost 2,900 students is about 1,000 more than in fall 2022 and 2,000 more than four years ago. The school greatly expanded its Youngsville campus this past year. It currently has about 300 students in every elementary grade, roughly double the size of those grades last year.
Its sister school in Lafayette, Lafayette Renaissance Charter Academy, has also grown. It currently has about 1,700 students, adding 500 this fall.
Those two schools accounted for two-thirds of the enrollment growth in Louisiana schools last year. Acadiana Renaissance has an A academic letter grade from the state and Lafayette Renaissance has a C.
Both schools are operated by the for-profit Charter Schools USA. Based in Fort Lauderdale, Charter Schools USA runs seven schools in Louisiana with more than 9,000 students, making it the largest charter operator in the state. It's set to open an eighth Louisiana school next year in Vermilion Parish.
In the Baton Rouge area, the charter school enrollment picture is mixed.
The school that grew the most is Kenilworth charter school, adding more than 300 students this past year. The school, a middle school only since 2009, added an entire elementary school this year and built a new campus on Siegen Lane. It also now has a Type 2 charter, which allows it to enroll students outside East Baton Rouge Parish.
The school’s growth so far, however, is all in its new elementary grades. Its middle school grades declined by 49 students compared with last year.
Some schools that have grown in the past have slid backward over the past year. This is most apparent with the three schools run by Texas-based IDEA Public Schools.
IDEA’s two original Baton Rouge schools, IDEA Bridge and IDEA Innovation, grew fast after they opened in 2018 but both saw big enrollment declines this past year of 200 and 111 students, respectively.
IDEA’s third Baton Rouge school, IDEA University, which opened in 2021, declined by 19 students.
All three declined despite adding grades. All three schools also currently have F letter grades. They will need to improve academically to ensure renewal of their contracts. They collectively educate more than 2,500 children in grades kindergarten to 12.
Cole with CSAL said the three IDEA schools are facing the challenges that all public schools have faced during the pandemic, including learning loss, teacher shortages and burnout among school leaders.
“I’m definitely concerned about the situation," he said. “I know that there are good people at all of those schools."
Cole said the CSAL network, which manages four schools, has mostly been successful in retaining teachers. Schools that lose popular teachers often then lose enrollment, he said.
“People follow people,” he said.
