Cynthia Hogan pulled her daughter and son out of Catholic school when she started feeling the squeeze of a recession that had just begun.Continue at the link for more.
"We just couldn't keep writing the check. It was killing us," said Hogan, who lives in San Francisco. "My husband just got laid off in October. Thank God we are where we are."
Across the country, Lisa LeMieux had moved her 9-year-old daughter to a private school in their rural, central Florida community last year, taking on the $400 monthly tuition to provide her with a better education. It lasted half a year.
The mother of two from Oviedo, Fla., decided to switch Danielle back to public school in the fall after the tuition, rising health care costs and other expenses put too much stress on the family's budget.
"This year, it would have been really difficult," said LeMieux, whose husband owns a small contracting business.
This recession, the worst in a generation, is forcing painful decisions about private school. Parents are falling behind on tuition payments, and some are switching kids to public school now, in the middle of the school year, something they almost never do.
Karen Lockard, principal at Maryland's Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School, said several students left elite prep schools to transfer there this year.
"Traditionally, that's not when parents move them _ that's much more disruptive, to move them as 11th- or 12th-graders," Lockard said. "It's tough, because friendships are formed, and when you're in private school, some of the requirements for graduation are not the same as public school. They come to school and have to make up credits that don't transfer."
About 7 percent of the families who pay tuition through New York-based Smart Tuition are dropping out midyear, double the usual number.
"It's harder to collect tuition now than ever," said chief executive Andrew Goldberger, whose company handles billing for about 2,000 private and religious schools.
More of the parents sticking with private schools are asking for financial aid, straining school endowments that withered with the stock market. The National Association of Independent Schools said 2,400 independent and parochial schools it worked with reported a 4.3 percent jump in the number of families applying for aid.
"Consumers are feeling much more pain," said Nigel Gault, chief U.S. economist at IHS Global Insight.
"You're paying for private school, but you still have college costs stretching out beyond that," he said.
College costs are no small matter, considering they are rising faster than the cost of health care, according to a recent study from the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education.
That was a factor for Lisa Henderson, who moved her daughters from private school to Chevy Chase Elementary in the Maryland suburbs of Washington.
"We have to start saving for college," she said "Prices went up every year. It was going to be too hard. Plus, we had a great public school option."
Meantime, on the same topic, the editorial page of the Detroit Free Press has some advice on education -- and a plea -- for the incoming bishop.
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7 comments:
This is not just simply an issue of a reduction in the ability to afford Catholic schools, this also places an increased strain on the public school system. For every child in a Catholic (or private) school in Maryland, it saves the taxpayers over $11,000 per child. Yet, when Catholic schools and parents go to our legislators, and ask for tax breaks, some sort of minimal funding, vouchers, etc., the answer is "it is your choice."
I always ask legislators, is it cheaper to give Catholic and private school parents $2,000 or $3,000 in vouchers/tax breaks and save over $8,0000 per student per year, or is it better to pay $11,000 per year in tax money?
I usually get an answer that has nothing to do with the question.
Yetr the very Diocese you highlighted a few Days ago as having all those vocations has no tution for Catholic students (Diocese of Wichita)
I wish we would start examing what is working elsewhere
As mentioned parents sending their children to Catholic Schools pay twice - once to send their children to the Catholic School and once to the state to send other children to the public schools. Vouchers are good tax credits would be better.
If you send your children to private school, that's your choice. Don't ask me to subsidize it.
I suggest we have a national shut down of all Catholic schools for 6 months. All these chidren should report to the local public school and demand entrance. We keep all teachers employed and do tutoring of the kids to keep them up to standards we expect in our schools, and then 6 months later open the schools back up once again. I suspect that when faced with huge tax increases, we might begin to see tax breaks for kids going to private schools or home schools. I still think each child should receive vouchers for education with their parents able to select what school to go to without restrictions. The competition would improve schools for everyone. I notice Obama and all his cronies in Washington sending their kids to private schools and I suspect that the income they are paid with tax dollars is being used to pay for those schools. DC has huge outlays per student and have had horrible schools for generations.
Here would be something that the USCCB could actually do that would make a difference for the poor. Shut down our schools and see what happens very rapidly.
Michael, normally I'm inclined to read your opinions with an open mind, and have agreed with you in several cases. But by paying out of pocket for their own children, parents who send their children to Catholic schools ARE paying twice-- for their own children and subsidizing the education of others in public schools. These parents actually SAVE taxpayer money with their sacrifices; it's not as ludicrous as you seem to think that they should receive some sort of tax break. There are a lot more outrageous things in the tax code.
I'll go Michael one further: let's see separation of school and state. Then there'd be no quarrels over who is -- on net -- subsidizing whom. Nor would there be angst over whose politics will be imposed against the clear desire of parents.
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