Am I imagining it, or was that a huge outburst of silence that greeted the news of still another large enrollment drop in American Catholic elementary and secondary schools? If silence really was the reaction, that’s as troubling in some ways as the enrollment decline itself.
According to a National Catholic Educational Association report cited by the Catholic News Service, total Catholic school enrollment in the school year drawing to a close was 2,363,220. That was a drop of 57,370 — 2.4% — from the year before. The figure has fallen 9.7% in the past 11 years, with the largest decreases (16.3%) in eastern and midwestern urban areas.
Excluding Catholic schools in New Orleans forced to close by Hurricane Katrina, 223 schools were consolidated or shut, while 38 new schools opened. The number of schools currently stands at 7,859.
To put these figures in perspective, it is useful to recall that in 1966, the 13,350 Catholic elementary and secondary schools in the United States had a combined enrollment of 5,582,354. That is a drop of 5,491 schools and 3,219,134 students in 40 years.
Whenever I write about these things, I cite two related explanations for what has happened.
The first is the massive movement of Catholics out of old center cities and into suburbs that took place in the years after World War II. Many center-city schools went under as a result, while out in the new suburban parishes springing up right and left, pastors and people often were hesitant to shoulder the costs of building and staffing new ones.
The second explanation is the rising cost of Catholic schooling linked to the disappearance of the teaching sisters who'd been the backbone of parochial education for over a century, and their replacement by lay teachers. Parochial school tuitions now running several thousand dollars a year are chickenfeed compared to startlingly expensive private schools, but cost is a deterrent for many parents just the same.
Typically, when I say these things I hear from people who accuse me of copping out by not mentioning something else: the poor quality of religious formation in Catholic schools that has moved many conscientious parents to choose homeschooling.
The critics have a point. The thinning-out of substantive content in elementary and secondary catechesis after Vatican II was a serious problem. For what it may be worth, however, my impression is that things have improved a lot in the last decade or so. And be that as it may, there simply aren't enough Catholic homeschoolers to account for a school enrollment decline of 3.2 million between 1966 and now. I'll stick by the explanation that money is the largest part of the problem.
If that is so, and if one believes — as I do — that Catholic schools are well worth saving, one can only hope Milton Friedman is right in saying a “competitive free market education system” remains a viable possibility in this country. Friedman is the Nobel Prize-winning economist who fathered the concept of education vouchers many years ago.
Vouchers are a great idea that's had comparatively few takers up to now. Most observers agree that the main obstacle has been opposition from a public education establishment fearful of competition, supported by compliant politicians at the national and state levels. Even so, Friedman remains optimistic. “When the break comes,” he says, “what had been politically impossible quickly becomes politically inevitable.”
Could be. But it will take more than silence from Catholics in the face of Catholic school enrollment declines to bring it about.
Russell Shaw is a freelance writer from Washington, DC. You can email him at RShaw10290@aol.com.
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