It's no longer news that enrollment in Catholic schools is on the skids. Since 2000, it has plummeted 23.4 percent, a loss of 621,583 students ("The Plan to Save Catholic Schools," The Wall Street Journal, Feb. 1). These numbers are best understood by recalling that at their peak Catholic schools educated one of every eight children in the U.S. Despite the decrease in enrollment, however, they are still the largest non-government provider of education. As such, their future deserves a closer look.
The obvious question is why enrollment has fallen if Catholic schools have done as admirable a job educating disadvantaged students as they claim? The answer is not the result of lack of demand but of the inability of poor parents to pay tuition, which has risen because of the growth of tuition-free charter schools and mounting personnel costs. Don't forget that until the 1960s, most teachers in Catholic schools were nuns who never took a cent in salary. Today, nearly 96 percent of the faculty are lay teachers. Although the Supreme Court ruled in 1979 that church schools are not subject to the National Labor Relations Act, lay teachers continue to demand to be paid more in line with their colleagues in public schools ("Catholic School Teachers Wrestle With Faith and Obedience in Negoti...," The New York Times, Sept. 4, 2011). As a result, Catholic schools have been forced to increase tuition to stay operational.
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