Catholic Private Schools

Apr 10, 2010

Catholic Private Schools Face Falling Enrollment

catholic private schools

For a decade, leaders have prayed the situation would turn around, Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien said. But this academic year, enrollment at archdiocese schools is down 5 percent, or approximately 1,200 students, according to the archdiocese. That’s the equivalent of four full schools and twice the average decline of the previous five years. “To punt any further would be to lose the school system completely,” O’Brien said. “It’s obvious that some action has to be taken.”On Tuesday, O’Brien gathered 150 priests and educators to discuss the problem and introduced a 14-member committee to find solutions over the next 18 months.

Leaders want most of all to avoid closing schools, but they’ll also have to look at other painful options such as consolidation.The committee will develop a new plan of survival for Catholic schools. The committee includes state Schools Superintendent Dr. Nancy Grasmick, Baltimore County School Chief Dr. Joe Hairston and Baltimore city schools CEO Dr. Andres Alonso.”We’ve asked for volunteers from the public school sector because they are aware of the demographic shifts. They’re aware of savings, and how maybe we can do some savings financially,” O’Brien said.

Baltimore is facing the same problem as many Catholic school systems across the country - especially in the Northeast, said Mark Gray, research associate at the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University. The schools traditionally served Catholic immigrants concentrated in northeastern cities. As Catholics move to the suburbs and the Sun Belt, school buildings can’t follow, he said. In the suburbs and the South and Southwest, the problem is reversed with many Catholic schools not having enough seats for their growing communities, Gray said. Another demographic shift affecting enrollment is a trend toward smaller families, which translates to fewer students, O’Brien said.

Historically, the work of members of religious orders kept costs low for Catholic schools, but now the staffs are mostly lay people and systems have to keep up with the costs of salaries and health benefits, Gray said. The worsening economy has exacerbated problems, leaving families with less money to spare for tuition. “There is a real concern about the future,” Gray said. “Who are Catholic schools for if the average Catholic family can’t afford tuition? It’s supposed to be accessible to any Catholic family that wants to send their children there.” Ensuring that schools are accessible geographically and financially is key to increasing enrollment, O’Brien said.

But Catholic school systems may find themselves reevaluating their missions. “Our primary responsibility is to educate our Catholic kids in our tradition,” O’Brien said. “But we also realize we have become kind of a refuge for others because of the state of public school systems in some areas. So we certainly have an obligation to the common good.”But Catholic schools are not alone in the decline. A number of other private schools are facing similar challenges.

Ronald Goldlatt, the head of the Association of Independent Maryland Schools, said the handwriting is on the wall.”Schools are anticipating the downturn in the economy by working very hard to be very efficient to reduce cost where they can, and they’re working especially hard to provide as much financial aid as they can for families who may be hurting,” he said. In nearby Washington, the archdiocese recently went through a process like Baltimore is beginning, holding a convocation on enrollment in October 2007. One result was the fine-tuning of the archdiocese’s tuition assistance program. Previously, the archdiocese helped needy schools balance budgets, but the new program aimed at retaining and attracting students means money can go toward an education instead of just paying bills, said spokeswoman Susan Gibbs.

The archdiocese spent $940,000 this academic year to retain 311 students and attract 238 new ones, and those families are paying $1.8 million in tuition, Gibbs said. This academic year, Washington also took the unusual step of converting seven schools to a public charter group, which aims to maintain the high standards and values of Catholic schools without focusing on religion. Excluding the number of students lost through the conversion, the Washington’s enrollment was 2 percent lower this year, according to the archdiocese. “I am very pleased with where our enrollment for schools is,” said Washington archdiocese superintendent Patricia Weitzel-O’Neill. “We’re in a good place right now and I’m praying we can stay in this good place.”

The Diocese of Brooklyn and New York City announced Saturday that they are considering a similar move, converting four schools with falling enrollment into publicly funded charter schools without religious instruction. However, state law prohibits converting religious schools into charters. Meanwhile, O’Brien plans to tell those meeting in Columbia this week that officials are listening and want to know what’s working and what isn’t.

People in the archdiocese know there will have to be sacrifices, but they don’t want to lose their schools, he said. He warned that the archdiocese might even have to take action before the committee completes its work. “The major thrust of our future is going to rest on the findings of our committee with great input from every segment of our community,” O’Brien said.

Source : Catholic Private Schools & Catholic Private High Schools