Nosedive: Enrollment in Catholic schools faces 'huge decline'

[MineralMan]

What's up with Roman Catholic parochial schools? Not attendance, that's for sure.

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/deaconsbench/2018/07/nosedive-enrollment-in-catholic-schools-faces-huge-decline/

Nosedive: Enrollment in Catholic schools faces ‘huge decline’

The complexion of America’s private school sector has undergone massive changes over the past half-century, driven mostly by a decline in Catholic school enrollment, according to a major new report published in the journal Education Next. The authors find that middle-class families in particular have been leaning away from private schools for several decades.

Written by renowned researchers Sean Reardon of Stanford and Richard Murnane of Harvard, the report uses census data, longitudinal studies conducted by the U.S. Department of Education, and family surveys to create a picture of trends in private elementary school enrollment since the 1960s.

Overall, attendance in both religious and nonreligious private elementary schools has fallen from a peak of 15 percent of the total K-8 population in 1958 to just under 9 percent in 2015.

{snip}

“The big decline is in the Catholic schools — and that’s a huge decline,” Murnane told The 74 in an interview. “In 1960, 9 out of 10 kids who were in a private elementary school were in a Catholic school. That’s now 4 in 10.”

More at link...

[The Genealogist]

1. I think Catholic school enrollment is more than it used to be. I am speaking only anecdotally...

My stepbrother graduated from the local Catholic high school, after a lot of behavioral problems in public schools. I attended his graduation in he early 90s, and there were 12 total graduating. My stepmother still refers to this as the last small class for the school. They recently just doubled the size of the building. They also added at least one Catholic primary school as well in the past q0 years or so. I guess locally, Catholic schools must be bucking the trend.

[MineralMan]

2. Perhaps your local school is an outlier.

The data don't show an increase in enrollment. Just the opposite. Single data points don't necessarily reflect the general trend.

[The Genealogist]

3. I think it may have to do with demographic changes locally

The county south of me has exploded in population in the past 30 years, while my own has grown fast but not quite that fast. Probably more to do with those kinds of changes than anything else.

[MineralMan]

4. Probably you're right.

[Guppy]

5. coincides with the decline of catholics

They have also gotten very expensive. Marist in Atlanta is 20,000.

[MineralMan]

6. I'm sure that's part of it.

In several areas, the Catholic Church in the United States is in decline, overall. My three posts today and one from yesterday have to do with that decline. Part of it is probably due to the general decline of religious belief here, and part of it is specifically due to the child sex abuse scandal within the priesthood on a worldwide basis.

I don't expect any news that will be coming out to shift those trends.

[Act_of_Reparation]

7. Good.

I spent eight years in a Catholic school. Would not recommend.

[brush]

8. After years of horrible news of predatory priests preying on kids...

of course there would be a decline in Catholic school enrollment.

That's a monumental pr problem.

[MineralMan]

9. It's all part of a picture that doesn't look good

for Catholicism, generally.

[Raven123]

10. Not terribly surprising

The history of the rise Catholic schools in America paralleled a perception of Catholics as outsiders. I'm not clear if this was from Catholics' point of view, the view of Americans in general or both.

The assimilation of Catholics into American culture and geographical dispersion throughout America would lead to lower enrollment in Catholic schools.

Combine this with general decline in religious vocations, religious affiliation and economic realities the cost of education adds more reason for declining enrollment.

The massive problem of clerical abuse may doom them

[Voltaire2]

11. Good News!