Private Schools Face an Existential Threat

Neal McCluskeyEven in terrific economic times, we hear the drumbeat that public schools areunderfunded. When there are downturns it gets even louder – in the Great Recession we heard a lot about “cutting to the bone. ” But public schools do not tend to face the harshest consequences of bad economic times. Private schools do.Private schools start behind the eight ball no matter what the economic conditions because they are competing against public institutions that get massive subsidies from taxpayers and are free from the perspective of consumers.It is, of course, extremely difficult to compete against “free” because you have to not only be worth the price you charge, but also roughly the amount of spending going to the “free” option. With public schools on average spending$15,424 per student as of the 2016 –17 school year (the latest with available federal data) that is tough.That competition becomes even more daunting when economic times are hard and families have less money for everything. During such times public schools see reductions in their funding —in the 2008-09 academic year public schools spent $15,377 in 2018 dollars, which dropped to $14,077 in 2012–13—but they rarely face extinction. Not so private schools.How haverecentrecessions looked?July 1990 to March 1991 saw the Gulf War Recession, which was relatively mild —a 1.5% GDP decline—and as seen below, private school enrollment dipped between 1993 and 1995, maybe as an after effect ...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs