Charter schools expected to fuel jump in enrollment

Editor's note: The following story is a corrected version of a story that was posted earlier today.

Utah schools basically have added another Provo School District to their rolls.

Enrollment jumped by 13,650 students, or 2.6 percent, between fall 2006 and 2007, the State Office of Education reports. Just under 3,000 of those students attend charter schools — about 22 percent of the growth.

But a year from now, charter schools are expected to enroll an extra 6,800 students — a 30.6 percent enrollment increase — according to 2008 enrollment projections. That increase would represent more than half the 12,880 new schoolchildren projected to be on Utah's rolls.

Utah currently has about 537,700 schoolchildren, according to the fall head count. By next fall, the number is expected to swell to 550,500, a 2.4 percent increase.

"We used to talk about the coming 150,000 students," State Associate Superintendent Larry Shumway said Wednesday. "This is the annual increment of that onslaught."

Utah, which has the nation's highest birthrate, is expected to boost school rolls by 55,000 children between 2005 and fall 2008. Enrollments are projected to grow by 2.5 percent to 2.8 percent each year for the next seven or eight years, according to the Office of the Legislative Fiscal Analyst.

But growth will not be everywhere. Granite School District is expected to shrink by more than 800 students between this school year and next, a decline of 1.2 percent. Iron is expected to be 500 students lighter, for a drop of 5.8 percent in fall 2008.

On the other hand, the 58,665-student Alpine School District this year grew by 4.7 percent, or 2,614 students. It is projected to grow another 3 percent by next school year to 60,400. Davis School District grew 2.7 percent, or by 1,719 students, this year, and is expected to continue at a similar clip between this school year and next.

But by far, the biggest growth belongs to the charter schools.

And charter officials say next year's 30.6 percent growth projection could have been even greater if the state did not cap enrollment growth at 5,000. Under that measure state leaders could not approve new charter schools that exceed a total growth of 5,000 students.

Gary Belliston, finance specialist for the State Charter Office, said that's a tall order, especially when, between new charter applications and charters that simply want to expand, the total growth requested this year is around 15,000 students.