I find the discrimination/social justice perspective on vouchers to be interesting. I hadn’t really thought of it that way. Our area has many non-Catholic private schools (episcopal, baptist, Methodist, non-denomination) as well, so perhaps more anti-Christian sentiment than anti-catholic here.
The voucher argument generally gets shot down here with the argument that it would create a lack of funding for public schools, and merely benefit those who could already afford the private schools.
The contracepting causing smaller school enrollments does not apply in my area. Catholic schools with high academic scores find themselves setting geographic boundaries for their pool of students. The closures and realignments here can be directly linked to the move to suburbia and the improvement of the public school system.
Thanks for sharing what’s happening in your part.

The Catholic schools in my diocese are all doing quite well.  Unfortunately because of expense enrollment is mostly limited to families with only a couple of kids and families with more than 3 children are a rarity.  It’s a shame when families who are faithful to the Catholic faith are shut out of Catholic education while so many other families use it as a private school and the faith inside the school dwindles to little more than a name on the building.  Just my experience.

We’ve experienced consolidation in our parochial schools over the past 25 years here in northern NJ.  Perhaps the faulty thinking is the one where nobody expects change - it seems self indulgent now for every parish in each town to have it’s own school.  Why do we have a dozen parochial schools within a 15 mile radius?  I guess when land and labor were cheaper back in the 40s and 50s it was a no brainer to attach a school to every parish.  That’s just not the way it is anymore around here. Successful enterprises, no matter what business they are in, learn to adapt quickly to what’s coming down the pike.  The schools that have survived in my area have done so because they’ve become magnet schools. 
I know vouchers are a popular call, but I wonder what more government $ will do to the independent nature of the schools.  One only has to look at the fate of “Catholic” colleges and universities that accept gov’t funding to see where that went. 
I don’t know what the answer is - in my area the Catholic high schools are doing very well.  The elementary schools are doing well because they’ve consolidated, but I do think that less and less parents see the benefit of a Catholic education at the elementary level because the public elementary schools are considered very good.

I have to agree with Sr. Anne that our Catholic schools have been “contracepted” out of business.  Our local Catholic school has shrunk tremendously for many reasons, contraception being one of them. The Catholic element is barely recognizable as the children do not wear uniforms or have guidelines for hair or jewelry; not to mention the fact they are using a Protestant curriculum.  There are some good things happening, and I have hope for the future. But, for now, by the grace of God, we are homeschooling our 7 children.  My best advice is to pray to be open to life. It is not easy in our culture today, but
God has always provided, and I trust He will continue to do just that!

Catholic schools have been closing steadily in my area for years and they continue to close for the following reasons:

1.  Large families or families with one wage-earner can’t afford it.  The families that do use the Catholic schools almost always have two-wager earners.
2.  Homeschooling has picked up steam.  These are also the largest families.  In my parish I know of about 40 children being homeschooled even though there is a Catholic elementary school.
3.  Smaller families, either due to contraception or NFP.
4.  The economy is especially bad in this area and families have fled to find jobs.

The local Catholic school (K-8) here has grown considerably in the four years we have lived in the area - from about 85 students to 165 students!  A lot of it is because of the public school situation here in CA, with rising class sizes and the decline of non-core offerings.  However, while the school has grown, I wonder if it really is in the best interest of the school as most of the new students are not Catholic.  I was at a Mass with the school and it was amazing how many students filed up the Communion lines with their arms crossed.  I’d be surprised if more than 50% of the kids were Catholic, and of those, only a handful attend Sunday Mass with their parents. 

Of the families I know who do attend weekly Mass and do try to follow the teachings of the Church, most homeschool and a few have their kids in public school.  Both groups don’t see the point of spending 3500/kid/year to attend a school where some of the teachers and most of the students live in families that either disregard the taechings of the Church or don’t care because they aren’t even Catholic to begin with.  There are a few still at the school, but it seems more out of nostalgia or a sense of this *should* be the right thing to do, rather than being truly pleased with the education their children are receiving.

And I am very hesitant to promote vouchers - it seems very easy to go from accepting government money for tuition to having to toe a line about what the school does and does not teach (since the government is paying for it, after all!)  And since Catholic schools generally need to be stronger in their teaching in their faith, rather than weaker, I don’t think it would be movement in a positive direction!

We just started vouchers here in Indiana for private school, but in order to qualify, the student has to have attended a public school in the last year.  That and the income limits which are low have disqualified us.  So, the vouchers were set up to provide an alternative to failing public schools, not to help Catholic school families continue to send their kids to Catholic schools.  The result is that families that are not Catholic or have never sent their kids to Catholic school, can now send them to Catholic school rather than public, but Catholic parents who are poor and have always struggled and sent their kids to Catholic school, can not get a voucher.  So we have been unable to send our kids to Catholic high school. We have sent them to our parish Catholic grade school.    Our parish has a stewardship program for the grade school only, and it has been very helpful to us.  Still we would like to send our kids to Catholic high school, but can’t.  We have five children, one in college now, one going to college this year, two in elementary and one in high school.  We are doing the best we can in educating our children in the Catholic faith, but I know they aren’t getting as much as they would in a Catholic high school.  However, they also are not involved in all the cliques that were so strong in the grade school, and for that we are thankful.  The big failure I see in our parish is the failure to provide ANY religious education for high school youth.  It is just not a priority because 75% of the kids go to Catholic high school.  They don’t care about the rest of the kids or the families that can’t afford it.  All the funds go to supporitng the parish school or the assessment they have to pay to the Archdiocesan high school.

When I lived in another state, the school my children attended investigated a diocese in Ohio (Toledo?) where an arrangement used to fund tuitions has gradually become a means to lower Catholic school tuition.  But you have to have a large enough Catholic school population to make it work.  Where I live now, the parish schools are very much on their own, the tuitions are high, and very few large families can afford them.  In my town, there is a financial aid program - but what’s expected is hard on families.  It doesn’t take into account children in the middle school of the same parish!  Let alone children in Catholic high school or in college.  There is little awareness that one family might have children in many different tuition-paying situations.  When my oldest child started kindergarten, there was precisely the sort of family discount program (K-8) proposed by RealMom4Life - by the time you got to four children, you paid for three and never paid more.  That discount is gone, and so are many large families.

Our Catholic school got rid of the multi-child discount plan. Used to be, 4th-plus child enrolled went for free. We fought this change, as it is simply the Catholic way to support large families, but unfortunately, there are very few truly “Catholic” voices in Catholic schools these days as many of them are homeschooling. We were well in the minority, and the change happened. The school didn’t notice a change in enrollment immediately. Families that were there, such as ours (we had 5 enrolled at the time) did everything they could to not have to switch schools. The change was seen down the road when young families with many children just could not enroll due to the cost with minimal or no discount for large families. So now our school has to advertise (used to have a waiting list) to attract students, and virtually all classrooms have empty desks. (Wouldn’t it be better to have filled classrooms, even if some were attending for free? IE, wouldn’t it be better to have a family with 5 enrolled children, paying for 3 of them, rather than none of those 5 children attend?) Even from a financial standpoint, it makes sense. Our 6 children are growing and our youngest is now in 7th grade, but I worry about the future of Catholic schools. Will they be there for our grandchildren? My crazy dream? That large families will once again produce healthy numbers of priests and religious. Nuns will live in community, thus eliminating the need for a full salary needed when they each live independently. This will save the schools money, rein in tuition costs, and allow schools once again to offer a multi-child discount. And God will bless the faithfulness of all involved!

The local anglican rite catholic church has a phenom school and they max out tuition at 5 children (k-12) but that still is about $20000 a year. Plus all the extras which add uo and for families like us, who don’t live close…we’d have thousands of dollars added to our gas bill.

The Catholic schools in my diocese have been been dwindling in numbers.  The closest Catholic school is now 45 miles away and for some reason that seems to be okay.  There doesn’t seem to be a huge amount of support for the schools from the powers that be.  I had looked into tuition a couple of times.  It was $5000+ for one student.  I have four in elementary school right now.  Even with the family discount, there was no way that we could afford that. 

What the diocese (the bishop and those he has surrounded himself with) doesn’t seem to see, is that when a Catholic school closes, parents are going to look to other parochial schools.  About half of the Episcopal school is Catholic.  There is a school run by a Baptist church in town, that has a heavy population of Catholics now as well.  How do you keep your children Catholic when they are learning and participating in a different faith at school?

We were impacted by our parochial school closing this past June.  It was consolidated with three other elementary schools and the new campus was nearly a half hour’s drive down an interstate highway away without busing.  It was no longer an option for my family.  We made all the financial sacrifices we could but when coupled with the time constraints and enormous fuel costs, the school was placed out of our reach.  I don’t know what the solution is or if Catholic schools can be saved.  My children now attend public school.  They are doing well but we do miss the closeness and the culture of the parochial school system.

Well, I live in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.  I went through Catholic grade school here.  My old school, which is in the Manayunk section of Philadelphia, became the regional school for that area @ 10-15 years ago.  Now it will be absorbing another school slated for closure.  I also attended Catholic high school, but it’s a private school that isn’t subject to these closures.

In Philly and the surrounding area, after finding where someone is from (which suburb or area of the city), the next question is “Which parish?”.  This is a habit I carried with me when my husband and I lived on Long Island for a few years as well as New Hampshire.

My son graduated from our parish school a few years ago and is now attending an archdiocesan high school with an academic scholarship.  But we had to take the girls out of our school and place them in the local public school.  We simply can’t afford it anymore.  My husband is the main “breadwinner” but I also have a part-time job.  Our lives are anything but extravagant.  But our school district is a good one and I teach in our very large and active religious ed program.

One thing that hasn’t been mentioned much about this blue ribbon report is the fact that more than half the Catholic children in this archdiocese receive their formal religious education through parish programs (once know as CCD now PREP - Parish Religious Education Program).  And the rules for our PREP programs are about to be strenghtened.  There will be more required hours for the children to attend every year, the curriculum is going to be reviewed more regularly and the children will be making their Confirmation a few years later than they do now (currently 6th grade, moving to 8th).  This is going to take a lot of work.  And as both a teacher and parent involved in this change it’s going to make life even crazier than it is now.

So while I am saddened by the loss of these schools and I understand the pain of those who can’t afford it, I am very thankful that those of us outside the school system were included in this study.

I live in Wichita, and it truly is wonderful.
Here’s a great article about our thriving school system.
http://www.ilsussidiario.net/News/English-Spoken-Here/Education-Schooling/2011/7/26/CATHOLIC-SCHOOLS-Wichita-where-tuition-is-no-problem/196636/

I love our local Catholic schools, and went all the way through them, 1st through high school.  Back then we had the Vincentian sisters to keep it affordable and high quality.  Now, we survive on constant fundraising and a committed country parish that will not let its school fail.  Despite that, there is talk of consolidating with the more middle class and expensive school in the next town.  Guess which scool is likely to get the ax? 

Until just five or so years ago parishioners went tuition-free because our priest believed strongly that every Catholic child deserves a Catholic education.  But the lay teachers, about half of whom are protestant, eventually overrode him.  Even with all these troubles, the last thing I want to see is government assistance to keep our schools solvent.  Vouchers will render us totally helpless against o what is happening to other Catholic institutions right now.  If hospitals and charities are not permitted an authentically Catholic identity under this government, why would Catholic schools fare any better?  If it all has to go to homeschooling to keep Catholic education truly Catholic, I won’t like it, but I’m ready.

My husband and I wish we could send our children to our parish school. We have four children and we CAN afford to send them all to a Catholic school. However, each one has a learning disability of some sort (nothing major) and most Catholic schools have NO support for that. Instead, we homeschool because we don’t consider our local PS an option.

It is important to me that it is pointed out that your taxes are not paid for public education to send your child to public school. Everyone in society pays for public education because it is for the benefit of a society, for the society to educate all of its citizens.