A recent analysis out of New York suggests that the growth of charter schools is a “significant and growing factor” in the declining enrollment in that state’s Roman Catholic schools.
Abraham M. Lackman, the president of Praxis Insights, an education and government consulting organization, and a former top staff member for the finance committee of the New York state Senate, says that Catholic school K-12 enrollment in New York has declined by 96,000 students, or 35 percent, over the past decade. At the same time, the number of students in charter schools jumped from about 4,000 to nearly 55,000. Such schools are publicly financed and tuition-free.
Mr. Lackman concludes that migration to charter and other schools typically, other private schools accounts for 30 percent of the loss of enrollment in Catholic schools.
