The National Catholic Educational Association held its convention in San Diego last week and reported that Catholic schools are still losing enrollment.
The annual report by the association shows the trend of recent decades has continued in the past year. Though 14 new Catholic schools opened in the United States, 86 consolidated or closed.
Tom Burnford, the association's interim president, said the closures are a reflection of demographics and geography. Many Catholic schools have closed in poor inner-city neighborhoods. But Burnford said the news was not discouraging.
“For many parents that want a Catholic school education, the schools are alive, they’re thriving and they’re strong," he said. "So we’ve got challenges, but we’ve got a bright future. We’ve been doing this for a thousand years."
In the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego, Juan Diego Academy opened in Chula Vista in 2015. An Oceanside Catholic school, Mission Montessori School, is scheduled to close next year, said John Galvan, director of schools for the San Diego diocese.
Recent Catholic school closures in the San Diego diocese include Sacred Heart Academy in Ocean Beach in 2013 and St. Jude's in Southcrest in 2011.
Galvan said the decline in enrollment over the past year in San Diego is comparable to the national enrollment drop of 1.2 percent.
The San Diego diocese has confronted the problem of falling enrollment with efforts to get schools to work together and to make each school less dependent on its parish, financially and administratively. Efforts also have been made to make Catholic school tuition more affordable.
The Bishop Flores Scholars fund was established in the San Diego diocese last year as a source of scholarship money for the families of Catholic schoolchildren. Galvan said the diocese has committed $1 million a year to Bishop Flores Scholars from its annual Catholic appeal, and it's partnered with the Knights of Columbus to raise money from donors.
Burnford said the National Catholic Educational Association continues to lobby for public programs that allow parents to use their educational tax dollars for private school tuition.
“There are 27 states in the union that have some form of support going to families — not schools — going to families so they can choose the education that best fits their kids,” he said.
The association said California does not allow educational tax dollars to be used for private school tuition in the "choice" programs Burnford refers to.
