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Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
Home > Blogs > Get on the Bus > Archives > 2007 > May > 03 > Entry
Private school ups and downs
While I was buried in Dayton school levy stories Wednesday, two of my colleagues picked up on important local private school news.
First, Kyle Nagel wrote about how the number of applications for taxpayer funded vouchers to attend public schools doubled this year to 1,200. So more kids will use vouchers to attend private schools next fall.
At the same time, one of the city’s best private schools, Chaminade Julienne High School, announced to its parents that the school will have a big enrollment drop next fall and laid off 11 staff, as reported by Stephanie Irwin.
First, let’s look at vouchers. This is a huge gain in the number of voucher kids, which can’t make Dayton Public Schools happy. The timing of the news of 600 more kids seeking to leave the district just days before a crucial levy vote can’t please district leaders either.
By my eyeball count, it appears that per capita Dayton likely has the biggest voucher program in the state now, to go along with the charter school movement here, which by percentage has been biggest in Ohio and among the nation’s hottest charter school markets for several years.
But at the same time more public money is being spent on private school tuition, Chaminade is facing a steep enrollment decline. (Full disclosure: My wife works at the school.)
For several years, I’ve been writing about how a long term trend of declining Catholic school enrollment has accelerated as the charter school movement has grown. But so far, most of the charter high school options are niche schools usually targeted at dropouts. Those are not kids likely to attend private schools anyway. So until now there has not been a huge charter school impact on private high schools.
Dayton schools may be a factor here, as the district has focused on creating better high school options in recent years. The Dayton Early College Academy, for instance, grew this year to more than 300 kids and graduated its first class. These are students identified as likely college bound when they enter the program. How many of them might have chosen Chaminade if not for the free option of DECA?
Perhaps if voucher growth continues, more students can use that option to attend Chaminade. I am wondering how Dayton’s other Catholic high school, Carroll, is being affected? I am traveling today, but perhaps I’ll touch base with the Carroll folks when I return.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on these issues. Please post a comment if you have one.
Permalink | Comments (8) | Categories: Charter Schools and School Choice, Private Schools
Comments
By Peter J
May 16, 2007 2:26 PM | Link to this
Scott, when are you going to get around to comparing how things are at Carroll vs. how they are at C-J? I realize that the Dayton Public Schools are important, but a large number of famiiles are heavily invested in the area Catholic schools. When can we expect an update?By daddydearest
May 7, 2007 10:45 AM | Link to this
Lou, I am a teacher in DPS and I do know that most of our students are good but I am not blind to the facts that a lot of the students that have gone to charters have gone because their parents were tired of dealing with DPS teachers “picking on” their kid. A lot of these behaviorally challenged students end up bouncing around charters and DPS because they will not accept responsibility for their own behavior. My point was that the vouchers will give these children another avenue to pursue when they get kicked out of whatever school, hopefully the parochial schools will be able deny entry into their schools, but I bet with governmentally funded vouchers they won’t. Are the parochial schools willing to forego this potential windfall of money to maintain their educational standards? Time will tell�By lou
May 4, 2007 10:31 AM | Link to this
Daddydearest most students in DPS are good kids with a lot of parental support. Unfortunatly most of you only here about the bad apples. It makes better news for the media to report about a fight than perfect attendance, honor roll, or other things that are positive.By Lindsy Hamilton
May 4, 2007 10:18 AM | Link to this
Being on the inside of a private school they are more then willing to take these students and give them the education they deserve. And the teachers make less money becuase the schools don’t have the money the public schools have. They wont turn away a student just because they come from DPS they need money just as bad as DPS does. It will help the school and also help the child. The only way a school would turn down a family voucher or paying the tution is if the grade they request is full. What people don’t understand is that the private schools have a set tution base rate but not many families can pay that amount and they work with the families on that so in all in all the schools don’t always get their full tution amount. And only so many people will qualify for the vouchers. and if a charter school isn’t on the list then they don’t qualify but with dps having 14 schools still failing thats making them able to loose their students to vouchers. I bet most are from DPS.By curious
May 4, 2007 9:24 AM | Link to this
If, indeed DECA is pulling students from CJ, that is interesting, since DECA is a school run in conjunction with UD, a school run by the Marianist religious order, and CJ also is run in conjunction with the Marianist religious order. If DECA is pulling kids from CJ, did UD help make it possible?By daddy dearest
May 4, 2007 12:36 AM | Link to this
It would be interesting to see how many of these applications for private schools are from DPS and the charters. I would wager that the higher percentage is from the charter side. I cannot imagine the private schools want too many students from either one because it starts to water down the effectiveness of a private schools with mediocre and ill- behaved students. The advantage that private schools have always had is that their parents are more invested in the school and the parents support their child’s education. They have higher expectations of their children and the school. When the private schools start getting the “free” students who have no real investment in their school, they will see behavioral problems rise and test scores fall. Those teachers will struggle to effectively teach these students, just as we do at DPS. Parochial teachers’ wages are considerably lower than public school teachers are and the reason that the parochial teachers accept these lower wages is because they do not have these headaches in their classrooms, now it looks like they will. I believe this spirit of competitiveness is leveling the playing field across the spectrum of schools in the city, but at what cost? It wouldn’t surprise me if the Dayton city parochial schools accept only voucher students at some of their schools and keep some of the others tuition only.By Lindsy Hamilton
May 3, 2007 6:11 PM | Link to this
I think the jump in voucher users this next school year speaks loudly on how the Dayton Public Schools are really doing don’t you think? Maybe this will wake up the people to see that they still have 14 schools that qualify for the vouchers. That mmeans not passing the state tests.By gth7
May 3, 2007 2:42 PM | Link to this
I’ll wager that the bigger issue is what it always is: money. We looked very closely at C-J for when our middle school-age child is ready for HS, but by the time she’s ready, I estimate the tuition will be close to $8,000 a year. I’m not saying it’s not worth it… it’s just that I can’t see a way to afford it and still be able to feed her at the same time. The blame doesn’t belong to CJ or to parents who are making other choices, I think it’s a function of stagnant wages and huge increases ni costs. I’m hoping for a turnaround.