Catholic Schools are Missing the Boat
— But their failing business model can easily be fixed!
This should be the BEST time for US Catholic schools, in the last 50± years!
This should be the time when almost all US K-12 Catholic schools have full enrollment and (as a direct result) would be in strong financial conditions.
This should be the time when Catholic schools are building extensions, and new facilities are opening in hundreds of communities across the country.
The reason is simple: most US Public Schools are doing a very poor job (on multiple fronts), and the public is very much aware of this situation.
However, US Catholic schools are generally NOT taking advantage of this business and marketing opportunity, as they are in a rut. Let’s do a brief look at the enrollment history of US Catholic Schools (data from here and here):
This is what a failing business model looks like! What’s the underlying problem here? To understand that, we begin with the Bishops…
The Role of the Bishop —
K-12 schools are located in (and overseen by) 143 US Dioceses — each headed by a Bishop (a clergy person). It is up to the Bishop as to: a) what priority K-12 Catholic education has in his Diocese, b) who he hires as a K-12 education superintendent, c) what guidance financially struggling K-12 schools get. Etc.
Unfortunately, the answers to all three of these are usually inadequate. Part of the problem is that in most Dioceses, the Bishop has little or no K-12 education expertise. As a result, he is immediately like a fish out of water.
So, to assist him, the Bishop hires a K-12 education Superintendent. Unfortunately, the Bishop does not know what skills such an employee should have, so they frequently hire an “experienced” person from the Public School system. The Bishop has no appreciation that such an individual comes with the heavy baggage of a failed system. This is NOT a recipe for success!
Syracuse Diocese as an Example —
What is the end result? Let’s use the Syracuse Diocese of Central NY as an example. I can speak at length about this, as I grew up there. The Big Picture is that when I went to K-12 schools, there were about EIGHTY secondary Catholic schools in the diocese. Since that time, about SEVENTY have closed!
The reasons for this catastrophe are that the Syracuse Diocese: 1) has not prioritized educating children, 2) has not hired appropriate K-12 Superintendents, and 3) has not provided meaningful guidance to financially struggling Diocesan K-12 schools. The Diocese’ education people appear to be in the roll of city personnel who oversee failing residential structures being demolished. All that’s left of once thriving, vibrant homes is stones and dirt.
Because Syracuse Diocese schools are not given competent assistance by the Diocese, they still use the same economic model that they had 50+ years ago. Their marketing and education product have not evolved. Effectively, they are offering good-quality VHS tapes to the public. Yet when interest (and income) precipitously decline, they say: “We did our best!” Not so…
Here is another example of their unimaginative mentality. On the Syracuse Diocesan K-12 website, they are congratulating themselves because students in Diocesan schools test better than those in average NYS public schools.
But their data says that only 41% of Diocesan students are at grade level! (This vs 28% for NYS — which is weighed down by some distressed areas in large NYS cities that are rare in the Syracuse Diocese.) 41% of Diocesan students at grade level is something that they should be extremely embarrassed to publicize — yet to them this is an accomplishment!
This inadequate comparison reminds me of a witty remark that George Will made. He was once asked what it felt like to be one of the leading US journalists. He said, “It’s like being the tallest building in Topeka.”
There is a Solution —
Stunningly, there is a straightforward and LOW COST solution!
As a result of our very poor Public School system (see this fine list of Fifteen Problems), millions of parents are actively investigating K-12 education alternatives. This has resulted in an unprecedented explosion of home schooling, even though this is a VERY complex and extremely time-consuming option for parents. The simple reason that they are taking this arduous route is that they feel they have no other good choice!
Note that in the two largest cities in the Syracuse Diocese, there is an homeschooling increase of 102% and 223%! The message is clear…
What are they looking for? National surveys (e.g., here) have made it crystal clear: a) 75% said that they were dissatisfied with Public School morality, and b) 73% said that they were dissatisfied with Public School academics.
Since US K-12 Catholic schools are already offering the morality part, all they have to do to win most of these millions of parents over is to now provide (and proudly advertise) a SUPERIOR ACADEMIC PRODUCT!
As I outlined in a recent commentary, this basically means: 1) teaching the 3Rs traditionally, 2) teaching Critical Thinking, 3) teaching real Science (not NGSS), and 4) extracting WOKE ideology from the curricula (like History).
The Bottom Line —
US K-12 Catholic schools have two fundamentally different choices:
Yes, it is as simple as that…
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Back in the mid ‘70’s my older brother and I transferred from a catholic school to public- him to 4th grade and me to 2nd. He was a full two years ahead of our peers and I was a year, academically. We both sat through horrifically boring repeats of material we had already learned at the Catholic school, minus the catechism we had at the former. Even at the tender age of seven I was gobsmacked that these kids were just now learning all the things sister Anna Mary taught me a year ago. Both of us were classified as “gifted” by the new school due to our aptitudes already exceeding the expected at public school grade level when honestly it was just the fear of god (and sister AM and her ruler) that would convince anyone to just try harder. While I’m no dummy my brother actually is gifted and I can’t fathom how unbelievably bored he must have been those two years. He did take the gifted classes out of sheer desperation but my mom said I was way too much of a social butterfly to thrive there. She was right but I still wonder if I would have done more had I done so too. After all, my July birthday left me youngest of my classmates and I never struggled at the catholic school. We both ended up at the catholic high school (my brother chose to go back when offered) and had no problems going back but it saddens me to say that the high school is no more. Catholic education now ends at 8th grade in my town. The church needs to quit spending so much on illegal immigrants and start caring for its own. It would go a long way towards bringing people back into the flock. They are sadly addicted to the government money available for such endeavors. It’s one of many reasons why I’m so happy about the shutting down of grifts like USAID etc. Let the church go back to saving souls instead of illegals.
I attended K-8 at an Archdiocesean grade school. I attended an independent Jesuit high school. Both the Archdiocese and the independent Jesuit high school have voluntarily incorporated most of the public achool curriculum ..., while charging higher tuition fees. The Bishops in Kansas support tax-funded school choice which is designed to eliminate ALL school choice! Whatever the government funds, it controls!!! Satan is at play inside the halls of Catholic education.