north metro

This article should also include how this increase has affected students due to larger class sizes. 30 children in Kindergarden?

I think it's interesting how schools are now following the money and recruiting students. Plus I wonder what impact the economy is having, are there less students in private and parochial schools? The Met Council is still forecasting modest growth in the number of young people. Most of the growth will be in populations of color. per the Met Council, "In 2010, people of color comprised 24 percent of the regional population. By 2040, the Council projects that 43 percent of residents will be people of color."

Anecdotally, it's interesting, 12 years ago when we lived in Uptown and wanted to buy there, the message was always, "If you have kids you HAVE to send them to private schools." So we moved to Plymouth but because Robbinsdale SD is in the tank, we're sending our kids to private schools. When I talk to people who live near the lakes in South Mpls, they all say the schools are really good now, many new families moving back in. Was on the wrong side of this pendulum, I guess!

Decline in U.S. birth rates slows. This was on the CBS news this morning. If this is the new trend, we should see numbers stabilizing or going down.

Why are public schools trying to recruit more students? These are the same schools that are crying about large class sizes. Do they not realize that for every student they pull in from private school, they put an extra $10,000 - $15,000 tax buden on us. We should all be encouraging and making it easier to send students to non-public schools.

Growth due to immigration.

--Do they not realize that for every student they pull in from private school, they put an extra $10,000 - $15,000 tax buden on us. We should all be encouraging and making it easier to send students to non-public schools.-- Actually, I believe the opposite is true. The state gives school districts between about $2,000-$5,000 per student (depending on age). If you take a student out of public schools, you are also pulling the money attached with that student. Minneapolis has set a current levy (community vote) of about $11,000 per student. About $6,000 more than what the state gives. The more students you have the less that average will look. The levy doesn't change. So in fact you should be encouraging MORE public school students so your tax dollars are affecting more students. (assuming of course that they are better schools now)