Are there any good politically/religious neutral charter or private schools in the Twin Cities? (St. Paul: catholic schools)

[UMN2BE]

We're starting to do due diligence on high schools. We live in a "good" district are leaning towards choosing it, but want to check what else is out there just in case.

Is anyone aware of any private or charter schools that are (ideally) politically and religiously neutral? I don't want them over-exposed to either (1) super-left wokeism or (2) far-right Trump style thinking. I just want the kids thinking, learning how make rational arguments on their own etc. Ideally in a non-religious environment. STEM focus would be a plus.

So far on the charter side I've found (1) Math and Science Academy in Woodbury (2) Nova Classical Academy as potential schools to investigate. But there's a lottery which AFAIK can be quite competitive.

Any other options that are out there? Location isn't super important as both my wife and I work remotely and can arrange drop offs/pick ups.

[tsid10d]

Mounds Park Academy is an excellent k-12 school in Maplewood, but it's expensive.
My son attended from 7th through 12th.

Edit: It's definitely not "stem focused", if anything I would say it's a bit arts focused, but that said, my son is a stem kid and took advantage of the advanced math classes, taking AP Calc 1 & 2, and AP Statistics while he was there. The big advantage is small classes and a more personal environment. He also really improved his writing skills while he was there. The downside is not as big a selection of classes that you would have at a public high school.

I have also heard good things about St. Croix Academy, which is a public charter in Washington County, but I don't know much more than that.


You might want to change the title of your post to say High School, if that is all that you are looking for - so you don't waste people's times. There are many charter and private schools that are just k-8 or k-5, etc.

[paiste13]

St Paul Academy in Saint Paul. It's very high end and non-religious

[UMN2BE]

Originally Posted by tsid10d

Mounds Park Academy is an excellent k-12 school in Maplewood, but it's expensive.
My son attended from 7th through 12th.

Edit: It's definitely not "stem focused", if anything I would say it's a bit arts focused, but that said, my son is a stem kid and took advantage of the advanced math classes, taking AP Calc 1 & 2, and AP Statistics while he was there. The big advantage is small classes and a more personal environment. He also really improved his writing skills while he was there. The downside is not as big a selection of classes that you would have at a public high school.

I have also heard good things about St. Croix Academy, which is a public charter in Washington County, but I don't know much more than that.


You might want to change the title of your post to say High School, if that is all that you are looking for - so you don't waste people's times. There are many charter and private schools that are just k-8 or k-5, etc.

Thanks - that was one of the schools on our 'private' list - it's actually probably the closest of all the options and I've heard good things about it. I looked at their course offerings and they are very solid for a school of its size. The only real obvious gap I saw were bread-and-butter AP classes like Chemistry, Physics, Economics but there is no guarantee my kid would take those anyways.

Sorry about the title - not sure how to edit it now, but hopefully people catch on once they read the first sentence

Thanks again for the information.

[TxTnVtMn]

Originally Posted by paiste13

St Paul Academy in Saint Paul. It's very high end and non-religious

St. Paul Academy is certainly a very progressive school. Academically it is more traditional, but the students and families would skew quite progressive.

I think you would find that LGBT discourse and students using nonstandard pronouns is very common there. I am not mentioning this pejoratively, but it may play into what you find to be “woke”.

Generally, I don’t think you find a particularly “neutral” private school in the twin cities. Mounds Park, SPA, Breck, and Blake are quite progressive. Providence Academy and Minnehaha Academy are quite explicitly Catholic and Christian schools (respectively). PA would be the most noticeably right-of-center private school environment in the Twin Cities.

Probably most “neutral” private schools would be the “mainstream” Catholic schools like Holy Angels, Benilde-St Margaret’s, Totino-Grace, Cretin-Derham Hall, and Hill-Murray. While some Catholic aspects are present in those schools, being a non-Catholic would not be a problem.

Visitation and St. Thomas Academy are hardest to categorize. Visitation is pretty balanced, but is an all-girls school(which may or may not help you). STA’s big identities are tied up in its military program and athletics.

[UMN2BE]

Originally Posted by TxTnVtMn

St. Paul Academy is certainly a very progressive school. Academically it is more traditional, but the students and families would skew quite progressive.

I think you would find that LGBT discourse and students using nonstandard pronouns is very common there. I am not mentioning this pejoratively, but it may play into what you find to be “woke”.

Generally, I don’t think you find a particularly “neutral” private school in the twin cities. Mounds Park, SPA, Breck, and Blake are quite progressive. Providence Academy and Minnehaha Academy are quite explicitly Catholic and Christian schools (respectively). PA would be the most noticeably right-of-center private school environment in the Twin Cities.

Probably most “neutral” private schools would be the “mainstream” Catholic schools like Holy Angels, Benilde-St Margaret’s, Totino-Grace, Cretin-Derham Hall, and Hill-Murray. While some Catholic aspects are present in those schools, being a non-Catholic would not be a problem.

Visitation and St. Thomas Academy are hardest to categorize. Visitation is pretty balanced, but is an all-girls school(which may or may not help you). STA’s big identities are tied up in its military program and athletics.

Thank you for that wonderfully helpful reply. I really appreciate it.