Catholic school enrollment suffered biggest drop ever last year
By Patrick Downes | Hawaii Catholic Herald
Catholic school enrollment in Hawaii shrank by one shy of 500 last year.
Four hundred and ninety-nine fewer students showed up for the first day of class in 2009 than in 2008, the steepest single year drop ever.
According to Hawaii Catholic School office figures, Hawaii’s 10 Catholic preschools, 26 elementary schools, and seven high schools started the 2009 school year with a total of 10,328 students. The year before, that number was 10,827.
Enrollment has fallen by 1,000 over the past five years. It stands at its lowest point in 65 years, ever since the post-World War II expansion and baby boom essentially built the existing Catholic school system at an average rate of one new school a year for 20 years.
But it wasn’t all doom and gloom last year. A number of Hawaii schools last year enjoyed modest enrollment gains of one to five percent. But for every school that added students, two schools lost some.
Two of the seven Catholic high schools saw their numbers increase, while the rest together suffered losses of more than 10 percent.
The figures aren’t in yet for the new school year, but it does not look promising. Adding to the enrollment woes was the closing last year of two elementary-level school programs — Holy Trinity on Oahu and St. Joseph on Maui.
It’s the economy, of course, said Catholic schools superintendent Carmen Himenes.
In the middle of a recession and high unemployment rates, a $5,000 to $10,000 tuition bill per child per year is too high for many families.
Himenes said that many schools do not have the deep financial pockets to float through the significant income drop that comes with major enrollment losses. So they are forced to raise tuitions, cut programs and teachers, and put improvements on hold, all which exacerbate the problem.
But Himenes wonders if there is another more fundamental factor at work adding to the crisis.
Catholic schools have been successful because parents have been willing to pay extra to give their children an education in a disciplined environment that offers high academics, religious instruction and an experience of faith.
But is religious instruction still an important enough draw?
“It is about choice,” said Himenes. “And times are changing. Faith formation is not high on the list.”
And with charter schools and other private schools expanding the choices in academics and discipline, she said, Catholic schools suffer.
However, the established alternative to Catholic school faith formation — parish religious education programs — have also lost students, and at the same rate as Catholic schools, about 10 percent over the past five years, according to Official Catholic Directory figures.
The number of students in parish elementary and high school religious education programs in 2009 was 8,162.
“We are at a critical point in Catholic education in Hawaii if the community does not want to choose Catholic education,” Himenes said.
It’s not a good thing for Catholic schools, she said, when economic strategy overshadows Catholic identity.
She does not want to see the mission of Catholic education replaced by the “business of Catholic education.”
“Yet, there can be no mission without the money or people to support it,” she said.
In 1946-47, at the beginning of the school building boom, Catholic school enrollment in Hawaii stood at 10,987.
The highest enrollment on record was 17,150 in 1965-66, when the post war baby-boom was peaking. The numbers declined to the 14,000-level in the 1970s and rose again to 15,298 in 1980. Enrollment hovered around the 11,400 mark through the 1990s up until 2006, after which it began its dive.