I’m only familiar with philly public and Catholic schools...and a few philly suburban public districts and Catholic parishes, not the rest of PA.
We’ve had quite a few parish schools closed/merged to a regional Catholic K-8 school in my area and surrounding area (South Jersey).
I think it’s sad but understand the reasons.
Some of the students I attended school with were not Catholic, but being in the city, their parents wanted them in a Catholic school: discipline, high academic standards, safety, Jesus as the core, etc. A few in my kids K-8 Catholic school aren’t Catholic but the parents contribute to the parish and school financially and with volunteer hours. It doesn’t matter if they convert to Catholicism. However, we have a waiting list for certain grades and active Catholics are at the top of the list along with siblings, etc.
We’re in an affluent town so our parish k-8 school won’t be closing anytime soon especially with the closing of a few surrounding parish schools this past June.
I can understand that Catholics would have preference in Catholic schools. It also seems to me that having schools in "bad" neighborhoods and allowing non-Catholics to attend might be an effective evangelistic tool, but I don't really have any data (and haven't looked for any) on how effective it actually is.