February 23, 2024–Excerpt from Monica Obradovic, St. Louis Post Dispatch
Photo Credit: Laurie Skrivan, Post-Dispatch
Since the fall of 2019, public school enrollment fell by 5,500 students in St. Louis County and nearly 3,000 in St. Louis city amid a nationwide drop in enrollment. Some private schools saw a small bounce, but many, across both the region and country, lost enrollment.
But Lutheran schools in the St. Louis area saw the opposite trend. Since 2019, overall enrollment has increased 19%, according to the Lutheran Elementary School Association, a consortium of 36 Lutheran schools that together make up the second-largest private school system in the area. LESA serves the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod — one of the most conservative denominations in the Lutheran church, and the second-largest with 1.8 million members nationwide.
