Philadelphia, USA -- Enrollment in Roman Catholic schools dipped again this school year, continuing a trend that has seen the student population drop from 2.6 million in 2000 to 2.4 million in 2004-05, according to the National Catholic Education Association.
The association, meeting in Philadelphia this week, said in a new report that national enrollment decreased 2.6 percent from the 2003-04 school year to 2004-05, as 173 schools closed or consolidated and 37 new schools opened.
"Sustaining (the schools) has been a struggle, but in the last four or five years it has become a very difficult struggle," Michael J. Guerra said Tuesday. "We don't want to lose these folks. We don't want to serve only those who can afford the bill."
Cost has been a significant factor in the enrollment drop, Guerra said. A top American official in the Vatican, Archbishop John P. Foley, told the conference that not enough Catholics who can afford to donate money to the schools are doing so.
"I have personally observed that as Catholics have become relatively more prosperous, they have become proportionately less generous," Foley said. "We must, must, must find ways to finance an affordable, quality Catholic education for every child."
The average cost of tuition for ninth grade at Catholic schools was $5,870 in 2003-04, a 37 percent increase from five years earlier, according to NCEA figures.
NCEA spokeswoman Barbara Keebler said the group does not believe fallout from the clergy sex abuse crisis of the past several years has played any role in the enrollment decline.
While schools are being closed in Chicago, Boston, Brooklyn and St. Louis, more than one-third of the nation's 7,799 Catholic schools reported having waiting lists, the NCEA said. Schools are being opened in Atlanta, Minneapolis and Austin, Texas.
Some businesses and charitable organizations also are trying to help make Catholic education more affordable for low- to moderate-income families.
Gregory P. Ciminera, executive director of Business Leadership Organized for Catholic Schools, said his group has helped raised $5 million for schools in the Philadelphia region in the past year, with most of the money going to families for tuition subsidies.
"Because other funding is drying up," he said, "businesses are going to have to step up."