Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
Home > Blogs > Get on the Bus > Archives > 2003 > November > 16 > Entry
Area Catholic schools face an uncertain future
By Scott Elliott
Dayton Daily News
DAYTON - Last week’s dramatic decision by Dayton Christian Schools to pull out of Dayton and relocate to the suburbs may be the first hint that the city’s private schools are entering a period of radical change after five years of charter school growth.
The city school district has been reshaped by the charter movement. Enrollment has plummeted by 30 percent since the first charter school opened in 1998, forcing 13 school closings and sparking a political overhaul of the school board. Charter schools now enroll about 15 percent of Dayton schoolchildren in 19 schools, making the city a national charter school leader.
Over that period, the city’s private school inventory remained unchanged until Dayton Christian’s decision. With half of the city’s private schools hitting 10-year enrollment lows in 2003, others including the Catholic school network have been forced into the unfamiliar role of marketplace competitors and may also soon be faced with tough choices about the future.
“It’s a dynamic and changing education marketplace,” said Mike McCormick, superintendent of the three Richard Allen charter schools and the former superintendent of Catholic schools in Dayton. “Because of the introduction of strong charter school competition, the whole marketplace is changing.”
Charter school advocates pushed for the educational alternative of free privately run but publicly funded schools primarily to force radical change in the low performing city school district. But for private schools, previously the salvation for many disgruntled district parents, the realization that they also are now in a fight for their existence has come more slowly.
“There has been a period of decline and we are discussing what the realities are for the future of Catholic education,” said Anne Battes-Kirby, the Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati’s assistant superintendent for the Dayton area.
School choice advocates argue that competition is good for schools and will result in better quality of instruction across all education genres, even if it means painful changes as some now believe more private schools are certain to close.
Chester Finn, president of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, called that process “healthy” for Dayton. The foundation, which advocates for school choice nationally, has helped several Dayton charter schools get started.
“One of the good things about the education marketplace is that it’s a dynamic place in which schools people want to attend will get more students and schools people don’t want to attend will lose them,” he said.
Several factors are affecting private school enrollment in Dayton. The 30-year migration of middle class families to the suburbs continues to draw families away. A poor economy also makes it tougher for families to afford tuition. For the church-affiliated schools, they’ve noted fewer of their flock make religious schooling a priority.
But the charter affect is apparent.
Most private schools were growing in the early 1990s and hit peak enrollment around the advent of charter schools in 1998. But private school enrollment is down 4.5 percent since then. Over the same time period, enrollment at the 21 private schools elsewhere in Montgomery County was up slightly.
In Dayton, 15 of the city’s 22 private schools are Catholic schools. Nine of those hit 10-year enrollment lows this year.
Tony Ferraro, principal at Precious Blood Catholic school in Dayton, said his school enrollment was affected most by changes in the local parish. This year, 360 schoolage children belong to the parish, down from 1,300 in 1972.
But Precious Blood has found new ways to compete for students, opening an early childhood daycare program, adding foreign language instruction and providing laptop computers for students. The school also is buying more newspaper ads.
Other private schools have stepped up direct mailings to prospective families, door-to-door visits and advertising.
The archdiocese, partly in response to calls for help from local churches, has created a marketing Web site called www.valuesforalifetime.com and is creating compact discs loaded with information that schools can hand out to parents.
Even so, Catholic school leaders acknowledge that there have been quiet discussions about the future and while no specific school is in danger of closing, those changes are likely coming. Unlike Dayton Christian, Catholic schools are not a unified school system but rather a network of autonomous schools run by individual churches. Decisions about each school are left up to the local parish.
“Will schools close in the future? Sure,” said Brother Joe Kamis, the archdiocese’s school superintendent. “When and how are questions still to be asked. Those discussions can go on for years. You can’t do that in public because it will induce panic and make things worse.”
The phenomenon of declining enrollment in urban areas is a nationwide problem for Catholic schools. The archdiocese is holding three symposiums this year to discuss Catholic identity, leadership, planning and the future of Catholic schools. A national summit also is planned.
“We don’t want to deny any child a Catholic school education if parents want that opportunity,” Battes-Kirby said.
Permalink | | Categories: My Favorite DDN Stories, Private Schools
