ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS LOSE NEARLY 3,000 STUDENTS

 

                    Continuing a pattern of severe declines in student population, the 147 elementary schools in the Diocese of Brooklyn have enrolled 44,753 pre-kindergarten to eighth-grade youngsters for the 2004/2005 school year, a drop of nearly 3,000 from the prior year.

                    It represents the second successive precipitous decrease in enrollment. Last year, it was almost 4,000, the largest falloff in students in the five years since l999-2000 when the total population of 55,516 was almost 11,000 greater than today.

 
                    “This is a problem of monumental proportions,” said Msgr. Michael J. Hardiman, diocesan Vicar for Education, who issued enrollment statistics this week.

       
                    “Given this negative trend,” he said, “I am deeply concerned about the enrollment realities today, and especially in the next school year. I do not know of a statistical model that would have been able to predict this continuing decline in students.”

       
                     Based on information requested on census forms sent to the schools, 3,661 children transferred into Catholic schools in Brooklyn and Queens this year, about 70 percent from public schools. Of 3,744 young people who transferred out of Catholic schools, 36 percent enrolled in schools outside New York City, reflecting population shifts caused by parents choosing to live elsewhere.

                    “The outward migration of families with children is a factor that has to be recognized, especially as one of the long-term effects of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001,” Msgr. Hardiman said.

                    “We also can’t ignore that a steady rise in tuition costs is also a significant factor,” he said. “The average tuition in l993 was $1,660, now it’s $3,000,” he noted. The average cost of educating a child is $3,900, compared to $2,070 in l993.

                     In his analysis of enrollment trends, Msgr. Hardiman said the loss in the number of first-grade students, from 5,990 in 1999-2000 to 4,293 this year, is troubling. “This was a trend pointed out in the Strategic Plan issued by the Diocese in the early 1990s and it’s also a problem today.”

                     He said a way to view this Fall’s decline is to note that the kindergarten and first-grade enrollments did not make up for the number of eighth-graders who graduated last June.

                     The Vicar for Education, who has served in several education administration posts in the Diocese in the past 20 years, was the project director for the Diocese of Brooklyn’s Catholic Education Strategic Planning Project, which was completed in l993.

                    
                     Since that year, there have been close to 7,000 fewer infant baptisms reported by parishes, according to Msgr. Hardiman.

                     “With a smaller pool of young people to draw from, the task of filling first-grade seats becomes more challenging. And an upturn in the number of infant baptisms is difficult to predict.”

                      Looking toward next year and into the future, he said “because of the precipitous enrollment decline, some parishes will find it difficult to continue to operate their schools.”

                      He said “the primary issue is not school finances, but the dwindling student population. I can say, sadly but with certainty, that we will not have 147 elementary schools in Brooklyn and Queens this time next year.”

                      Stressing that Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio “is committed, as am I, to preserving Catholic elementary schools of excellence that will be available to parents and their children,” Msgr. Hardiman said “this year will be difficult, but we will be on stronger footing next year.”

                      While acknowledging that the elementary-school statistics are bleak, he also said it appears that the experiences in the Diocese match trends observed by other large archdioceses and dioceses, especially those in the Northeast.

                      Other statistics released by the Vicar for Education indicate the following contrasts in the elementary schools since l992, the year before the strategic planning project was completed:

                      ---Non-Catholic students have increased from 13 percent to 21 percent.

                      Hispanic students have remained basically stable in number: 23 percent then compared to 25 percent now. The same is true of black students, going from 23 percent to 25 percent, and of Asian students, edging up from eight percent to ten percent.

                      Msgr. Hardiman said Bishop DiMarzio anticipated a downturn in elementary-school enrollment and noted it in his Tablet column, “Put Out Into the Deep,” last August.

                      In the column, the Bishop wrote that he was committed to preserving “quality Catholic elementary education to parents and their children in as many areas of the Diocese as possible.”

 He said a diocesan task force on education he appointed was working on a long-term “bold new vision for the future of Catholic elementary schools.” The task force is continuing its work, which began at the start of the year.

 
                      Msgr. Hardiman said the panel hopes to have a report ready to present to Bishop DiMarzio after Thanksgiving. “I’m confident that the education professionals who make up the task force will provide the ‘bold new vision’ the Bishop is seeking,” he said.

     
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10/28/04

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