Catholic schools are closing: Can tax credits or ESAs save them?

Sacred Heart School in the Bronx will not reopen in the fall, the Archdiocese of New York has announced.

New York City's Catholic schools are closing their doors, writes Ray Domanico in City Journal. Families with children are leaving the city, and parents who might have turned to Catholic school in the past are choosing tuition-free charter schools.

A small group of Catholic high schools has learned how to survive in the new environment, he writes. Some have gone co-ed. Others have opened middle schools. But many Catholic schools "lack the resources and expertise needed for new thinking," he writes. The archdiocese is not leading the way.

New York's political leaders should support a federal tax credit for contributions to scholarship-granting organizations, writes Domanico. The state's Children’s Scholarship Fund would spend the donations wisely.

Partnership, an independent charter-like management organization, ran Catholic schools for the archdiocese of New York and Cleveland. It is "the most promising school-turnaround model in the country," writes Domanico.

However, the New York archdiocese decided not to renew Partnership's management contract, took control of seven Partnership schools and plans to close three of them. The decision was "deeply disappointing," says Kathleen Porter-Magee, who's stepping down as superintendent of the nonprofit.

Catholic schools can't compete with charter schools, conclude Shaun M. Doughterty, Yerin Yoon and Andrew Miller on Education Next. It's the money.

"Public charter schools offer a tuition-free alternative to a family’s zoned public school," they write. "In many instances, particularly K–8 schools, family preferences for freely available alternatives exceed their preference for an independent school or religiously centered education."

About 7 percent of K–12 students attend charters compared to about 3.5 percent enrolled in Catholic schools.

The U.S Supreme Court could rule in the St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School case that states that grant school charters must also allow religious charters, they write. Or, President Trump's support for school choice could expand parent-controlled school vouchers. "The competitive landscape may be shifting in Catholic schools’ favor, and soon."