Converting parochial schools into Charters

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Elizabeth502

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nytimes.com/2009/04/22/education/22charter.html?ref=education

I find this unfortunate. I will bet that “declining enrollment” does not translate to declining interest, but rather to declining family funds for tuition. I said a few months ago that I wanted to start some scholarship fundraising in my area, through my parish, I think I need to do this now. I hope that if any of you know of survival threats to your own local Catholic schools, you can attempt to raise tuition funds as well.
 
Elizabeth502 said:
nytimes.com/2009/04/22/education/22charter.html?ref=education

I find this unfortunate. I will bet that “declining enrollment” does not translate to declining interest, but rather to declining family funds for tuition. I said a few months ago that I wanted to start some scholarship fundraising in my area, through my parish, I think I need to do this now. I hope that if any of you know of survival threats to your own local Catholic schools, you can attempt to raise tuition funds as well.
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The causes are many. Not sure of the cure.
  1. tuition per child around $4000 so if you have four or more children both parents need to work just to pay the tuition.
  2. distance to parishes with the closings of many inner city or small town parishes.
  3. transportation to regional schools since they are no longer within walking distance or in each parish.
  4. parents willing to transport to soccer, baseball, ballet, gymnastics etc but not willing to go to Mass and other Church related socials.
  5. religious classes and practices no longer mandatory due to the non-Catholics in the schools.
  6. teachers no required to be Catholic or even Christian per secular contracts.
  7. there are few if any single sex schools for parents that would prefer this. It has been proven that kids in non home learning situations do better in same sex learning environments.
Those families that have four, five or more children have only one working parent in most cases. At even $2000 per child per year it is nearly impossible to pay for family costs. Tuition with no breaks for those that tithe and serve the church is now the norm and not the exception. Everyone competes (for the limited money available to help) for the tuition breaks on an equal footing.:eek: So my family of seven is competing with the non-Catholic family that does not support the parish and Diocese. 🤷
 
Kathleen, I think your response, while you mean to be helpful and informative, is unnecessarily elaborate. Some of these are side issues that I am at least aware of as you are, being an educator, as well as a parent of two recently Catholic-educated children, K-12. (One school single, sex, the other not.) I’m well aware of ancillary issues, but in the main this boils down to affordability for a family of any size, let alone of many children.

Families who leave private Catholic education are not mostly doing so for teaching reasons. There is such a contingent, choosing other options and homeschooling, but the Catholic schools would be full if there were enough paying customers in those locations where they are closing. In many Catholic elementary and high schools, a minority of students are even Catholic at all. They are not there “for” the religion, even though they understand it will be taught, and liturgies will be mandatory. Some Catholic schools, esp. on both coasts, are anywhere from 70-100% students of color, whose alternatives are gang-populated and violence-prone inner city schools. The families choose “better” over horrible, whatever the religious content. And many travel some distance and juggle job shifts to do so.
 
Thank you I’ll take your response into consideration. Have a nice and blessed day.
 
I don’t really understand how that works. Don’t charter schools have to raise a good bit of money for themselves, or are they completely funded by the government?

Also, how difficult is it to gather a board of directors and change the administration without significantly changing the makeup of the school? Wouldn’t differing visions of the new school cause tension and division? The only good I can really see coming out of it is that, like the article stated, there would not be an influx of students into already crowded nearby public schools.

I for one would be heartbroken to see my children’s school stripped of it’s Catholic identity.
 
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