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Survival of the richest: Schools compete for students, dollars

JANESVILLE — As school districts are forced to tighten their belts, they’re looking for new ways to make money.

One way is to take advantage of the state’s open-enrollment law. Also called school choice, the law lets parents decide which district is best for their child. It also allows districts to recruit students from other districts.

More than $6,000 follows each student who crosses a school-district border to attend school. That swells some districts’ coffers at the expense of other districts.

So the Milton School District this year is losing money, for example, while neighboring Janesville is a winner.

It was the same situation in 2007-08, when Janesville gained $248,000 through open enrollment and Milton lost $471,000.

The Delavan-Darien district is losing nearly $1 million this year through open enrollment.

Delavan-Darien Superintendent Wendy Overturf said the problem is negative perceptions by the public, something the district is trying to change.

The system forces school districts to compete for students, “but I don’t think educators are wired that way,” said Karen Schulte, superintendent of the Janesville district.

Educators prefer to collaborate rather than compete, Schulte said.

Nevertheless, Schulte is under orders from the school board to increase the number of students leaving their home districts to come to Janesville.

The board deems the money so important that it has set a goal for Schulte: Increase the number of incoming open-enrollment students by 10 percent per year.

Oddly, the board’s goal doesn’t take into account the number of students leaving the district. Schulte said the goal may be adjusted in the future.

So is Schulte advertising? Is she sending letters to parents in neighboring districts, extolling the advantages of Janesville schools?

No.

“We’re not going out to Milton to try and take their kids, for example,” Schulte said.

Schulte said her team has thought about marketing, especially for the Janesville Virtual Academy, which allows a student to take classes online. That wasn’t a goal of the virtual school when it was first set up, but now the school is looking for students outside the district, Schulte said.

A lot of other virtual schools based in Wisconsin are doing the same thing. They send out news releases and hold meetings for interested parents at locations statewide. Janesville hasn’t done that, yet.

So how will Schulte meet her board’s goal?

By being the best, she said.

The district tracks state test results for neighboring districts and Big Eight districts. Those numbers show Milton does better, on average, “and good for them, but we want to get as good as Milton, at least,” Schulte said.

“I think there should be no excuses, that we should have our students achieving at a very high rate,” Schulte said.

Schulte acknowledges Janesville isn’t there, yet, but she’s pinning her hopes on what she sees as the district’s renewed drive and focus on learning.

Janesville also has two brand-new high schools, the virtual school and the TAGOS Leadership Academy as lures, Schulte said.

TAGOS targets at-risk students with a project-based curriculum.

The virtual school and TAGOS each have four open-enrollment students this year.

Schulte would rather not have to compete, however.

“Because we’re educators, I think we’re all about putting things together that are best for kids. We are not money makers,” she said.

Schulte would like Janesville schools to be so attractive that families actually move to Janesville. She knows that’s not going to be a growth area anytime soon, however, because of the local job market.