“”We lose the kids. They can’t afford it. And then as the school gets smaller, you have to raise the tuition to pay the costs and it’s a vicious cycle,” said Sister Dale McDonald, the association’s director of public policy and education research.”
That’s part of the problem.
Another big problem was switching from staffs consisting of teaching nuns, volunteers, or laypeople willing to work for less - to certified teachers with competitive salaries and benefits.
In our area I found the tension between the “social justice/working wage” folks and the realities of skyrocketing costs to catholic schools very interesting.
If there was an offender to the principle of the “working wage” - it was the catholic school system paying low salaries.
They raised salaries and benefits - which made catholic education a luxury for the wealthy.
just a little reminder folks....when referring to “Catholic” anything, generally it is the polite thing to do is to use capitals.....I do that when referring to Mormons or even Muslims...Jews for sure....
One problem is that the salaries and benefits are not competitive with public schools. Around here, an experienced public school teacher makes more than $55k. The teachers in some of the less successful Catholic schools were making less than half and the quality of the faculty suffered.