Update on Trends in Catholic Schools and Charter Schools

Parentspotlight has been keeping an eye on trends in Catholic Schools and Charter Schools. (also see our related blog postings in Feb 2007 and April 2010).


The Times Magazine and Wall Street Journal articles both cite the Cristo Rey Network, a network of 24 schools in the US, as a model of success. One of which is in Newark, NJ. Christ the King Prep's website is http://www.ctkprep.org/.

What caught our attention about the Cristo Rey Network Model was the innovative Corporate Internship Program. Students go to school for 4 days per week and work for a business one day per week. The money the students earn goes to the school to help underwrite their tuition. This seems to mirror the college work-study approach. The internship program keeps their tuition low (averaging under $2,400 /year), according to the WSJ article.

Times article: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1929589,00.html
Wall Street Journal Article: http://www.ctkprep.org/newsandcalendar/inthemediapages/wsj20100521.html

Also see below for excerpts from an interesting July 9, 2010 article posted in the Clifton Journal. In the Clifton article, we noticed another mention of another proposal in Paterson for a Diocese to run a charter school. There are also a lot of statistics about declining enrollment at Catholic schools.


Sacred Heart school joins long list of closures
Friday, July 9, 2010
BY TONY GICAS
Clifton Journal
STAFF WRITER

CLIFTON – Sacred Heart is just one among a long line of parochial school closures caused by a steady decline of Catholic school enrollment around the nation.

The Paterson Diocese oversees Catholic schools in Morris, Sussex and Passaic counties but of the 55 elementary schools open in 1981, just 30 diocese facilities remain.

In addition, the diocese closed three other elementary schools this year. The diocese also closed Paterson Catholic Regional High School but proposed a partnership with the Paterson school system to open a public charter school there.

The below statistics, courtesy of Brian Gray, a spokesman for the National Catholic Education Association, depict the plummeting enrollments at parochial schools:

* America's Catholic schools reached its peak in the 1960s with about 5.2 million students. By 1980 that number had dropped to approximately 3.1 million and in 2008 the nationwide enrollment hit 2.19 million.

* There were 12,893 Catholic schools operating around the country during the 1960s apex but by 2008 the NCEA reported just 7,248 schools.

* In 1970, New Jersey had 609 Catholic schools servicing approximately 275,000 students, but in 2005 that number dwindled to 396 schools accommodating 129,000 students.

* In 2008, 162 Catholic schools nationwide either consolidated or closed. Only 31 new schools opened during the 2008-2009 school year. The closings confirm a national trend characterized by shrinking enrollments, higher teacher salaries and the migration of Catholics from the cities to the suburbs, school officials said.

* In September 2000, the Newark Archdiocese had 137 grade schools in Union, Essex, Hudson and Bergen counties. Now, it has just 97. The school population in neighboring Paterson jumped by 1,000 students last year, a 3.5 percent increase in the district that has about 28,000 students, the district reported.

* Four years ago, the Paterson Diocese recorded 50 elementary schools with a total enrollment of 13,753 students. In 2008, the Diocese saw the enrollment drop to 11,177 elementary students, a decrease of nearly 19 percent.

E-mail of Clifton Journal reporter: gicas@northjersey.com