Confirmed: Private Schools Are Suffering under COVID-19

Neal McCluskeyNewdata on Roman Catholic school enrollment is out, and it confirms what Cato CEFsurvey andclosure tracker data have suggested since the start of COVID-19 lockdowns: private schools, especially Catholic, are hurting.The National Catholic Educational Association just announced a  6.4 percent enrollment drop in Catholic schools between the 2019–20 and 2020–21 school years. That is basically what we found in our survey of private schools generally: the average school reported roughly a 6 percent enrollment loss, though notably Catholic schools were only 20 percent of ou r respondents. And the survey sample was itself quite small.Our COVID ‐​connected permanent closure tracker – the latest summary is below – is dominated by Catholic schools, accounting for 105 of the 126 announced closures since March. The NCEA reports that more than 200 Catholic schools closed or consolidated since the 2019–20 school year. Many of those wer e closed in part due to COVID’s economic impact, but many preceded COVID or would have occurred regardless.So are enrollment losses a  Catholic school problem, a COVID‐​and‐​Catholic‐​school problem, or a COVID‐​and‐​private‐​school problem?Catholic schools have been losing enrollment for decades for numerous reasons, including declining numbers of low ‐​cost clergy, Catholics becoming “mainstream” and feeling more comfortable in public schools, priest scandals, and more. They also tend to be ...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs