Private education as we have known it is on its way out, at both the K-12 and postsecondary levels. At the very least, it's headed for dramatic shrinkage, save for a handful of places and circumstances, to be replaced by a very different set of institutional, governance, financing, and education-delivery mechanisms.44 of 156 schools closing? Ouch. Our local school is making small steps toward growth, but the classes there aren't nearly as big as they were back in my day. I think they average about 20 kids a class, while we were closer to 30. Right now, it looks like our school may see an enrollment increase, but around the region, schools are closing or merging.
Consider today's realities. Private K-12 enrollments are shrinking -- by almost 13 percent from 2000 to 2010. Catholic schools are closing right and left. The Archdiocese of Philadelphia, for example, announced in January that 44 of its 156 elementary will cease operations next month. (A few later won reprieves.) In addition, many independent schools (day schools and especially boarding schools) are having trouble filling their seats -- at least, filling them with their customary clientele of tuition-paying American students. Traditional nonprofit private colleges are also challenged to fill their classroom seats and dorms, to which they're responding by heavily discounting their tuitions and fees for more and more students.
Meanwhile, charter school enrollments are booming across the land.
There is a chapter in American Catholic by Charles R. Morris titled "God's Bricklayer", which discusses the growth of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia under Cardinal Daugherty. He was instrumental in building parishes and schools throughout Philadelphia and the suburbs in the early 20th century. It appears that some of those schools have run their course.
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