Tuition Costs Sagging Enrollment Worry Brevard's Catholic Schools, by Kate Brennan, Florida Today, January 20, 2008

Tuition Costs, Sagging Enrollment Worry Brevard's Catholic Schools

By Kate Brennan
Florida Today
January 20, 2008

http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080120/NEWS01/801200336

MELBOURNE — Whether it's math or science, music or language arts, God is always the main subject at Catholic schools.

Map of area Catholic schools

That, along with small class sizes, a family-like feel and a focus on morality, is why many Brevard County students and their parents choose a Catholic parochial education over a public one.

But those numbers are dwindling, both nationally and locally, a shift that has left Catholic schools struggling to remain viable.

Nationwide, Catholic school enrollment has declined 56 percent since its peak in 1960, when more than five 5 million students attended 12,900 schools. Last year, about 2.3 million students attended 7,500 Catholic schools, according to the latest data available from the National Catholic Educational Association.

Annual tuition rates this school year

$3,749
Average tuition at Brevard's eight Catholic elementary schools

$4,162
Average tuition at the 31 Catholic elementary schools in the Diocese of Orlando

$7,750
Tuition at Melbourne Central Catholic, Brevard's only Catholic high school

$7,476
Average tuition at the five Catholic high schools in the Diocese of Orlando

Comparing enrollment
Brevard Public Schools’ student enrollment compared to Brevard Catholic schools’ student enrollment:
This school year, Brevard Public Schools serves 75,235 students and Brevard Catholic schools serve 3,029 students or about 4 percent the number of students who attend public schools.
In the past decade, Catholic school enrollment in Brevard has declined about 20 percent or about 2 percent each year on average. During that same time, Brevard Public Schools enrollment has increased about 9.3 percent or slightly less than 1 percent each year on average.
This school year and last, however, public schools experienced a slight enrollment decline. This year, the district’s enrollment fell by about six tenths of 1 percent or 441 students, and last year it declined by roughly one half of 1 percent or 386 students.
Catholic school enrollment in Orange County slightly increased this year over last, with 23 additional students, according to the Diocese of Orlando. As a result of current and future growth, the diocese wants to build a new elementary school in Oviedo and a new high school in the Lake Nona area, among other capital projects, in the coming years.
Source: Brevard Public Schools and the Catholic Diocese of Orlando.

Students in Brevard
Brevard Public Schools currently serves about 75,000 students at 85 traditional schools, eight charter schools and three alternative learning centers.
The Catholic Diocese of Orlando serves 14,500 students at 37 schools in eight counties, including 31 elementary schools, five high schools and one special education school. Nine of those Catholic schools — eight elementary schools and one high school — are in Brevard County and serve 3,000 students.

Cost analysis
Education costs per student* in the 2007-08 school year:

Brevard Public Schools:

$4,070.86
State funding per basic student in Brevard Public Schools. The state allocates more money for students with special needs.

Diocese of Orlando Catholic schools:

$5,610
Average cost to educate each elementary student. The cost to educate varies at each Catholic school, depending on its operating expenses and student enrollment.

$10,297
Average cost to educate each high school student

Brevard Catholic schools

$5,733
Average cost to educate each student at Brevard’s eight Catholic elementary schools

$9,898
Cost to educate each student at Melbourne Central Catholic, Brevard’s only Catholic high school

*Public and parochial schools differ in their per student cost calculations.

Source: Brevard Public Schools and the Catholic Diocese of Orlando

Brevard's nine Catholic schools also have lost students. Collectively, enrollment at the schools plummeted 20 percent over the past decade or about 2 percent each year, according to the Diocese of Orlando, which operates 37 schools in eight counties, including Brevard.

Although no one knows for sure, local parents, school officials and church leaders agree competition from highly regarded public schools, coupled with rising tuition rates and a sluggish economy could be why students and their families are leaving Catholic schools, the largest private-education system in the nation.

Brevard boasts some of the top performing public schools in Florida and offers students more academic choices than ever before, including magnet and charter schools and International Baccalaureate programs.

Those options become attractive to cash-strapped families feeling the financial squeeze from ever-rising school tuition, said Gary Johanning, who has two children at Our Lady of Lourdes, where tuition is expected to increase 22 percent next year to $4,700 per student, including book fees. "The cost of homeowners' insurance and property taxes and the real estate market the way that it is, it's too much for a lot of people to deal with," Johanning said.

Raising the rates

Like other Brevard Catholic schools, Our Lady of Lourdes, a 220-student school, has launched a recruiting campaign to increase enrollment next year. But attracting new students hinges on their families' ability to pay tuition.

The average cost of tuition this year at Brevard's eight Catholic elementary schools, most which serve students from prekindergarten to eighth grade, is $3,749 per student. Tuition at Melbourne Central Catholic, the only Catholic high school in Brevard, is $7,750 per student. Those rates are expected to climb next year.

Harry Purpur, superintendent of Catholic schools for the Diocese of Orlando, said most, if not all, Brevard Catholic schools will raise their tuition for the 2008-09 school year to keep up with increasing expenses, including teacher salaries and insurance costs. Because schools haven't finalized their budgets, Purpur couldn't say how big those tuition hikes would be, but he said most schools raise tuition about 5 percent each year.

Some schools, however, will raise tuition by much more as a result of a diocesan push to set tuition rates at what's known as the cost to educate a child. The cost to educate is determined by dividing a school's operating expenses by its student enrollment, and it varies from school to school.

Most schools in the Diocese of Orlando are charging tuition below their actual cost to educate a child, and their churches are subsidizing the rest, said Sister Elizabeth Worley, chief operating officer of the diocese. But to get schools more self-sufficient, Worley said the diocese has encouraged schools to gradually increase tuition to their cost-to-educate figure.

That could bring more pain. By raising tuition, schools could lose students. But Worley said the risks are equally as great if funding shortfalls prevent schools from delivering a quality education. "The reality is if you don't raise the tuition to get to what the real cost is, you will lose students because you won't be able to provide the programs that you need to provide them," she said.

Even with tuition hikes, schools would provide discounts to families who can't afford the full amount, Worley said.

By June, Our Lady of Lourdes School and Church is expected to have accumulated $750,000 in debt to the diocese, according to school officials. Two-thirds of the debt is a result of the school's failure to boost student enrollment and increase tuition to keep up with rising payroll expenses, insurance premiums and other operating costs.

To operate in the black next year, school officials need to cut $289,000 from the budget, which likely will be done by reducing teaching staff and imposing a double-digit tuition increase.

Nicole Haynes said she and her husband would do whatever it takes financially to keep their sons, ages 3 and 5, at Our Lady of Lourdes, through the eighth grade. Haynes, who herself attended the elementary school, said she wants her children to be taught about their religion in school and raised with others who share their faith.

"For us, there really isn't any other option. It's just that important to us," Haynes said. "We put (tuition) ahead of other things, say maybe a new car, and we make it work."

In limbo

Mike Riazzi, athletic director and football coach at Melbourne Central Catholic, a 550-student high school where he's worked for 17 years, said the aim of Catholic education is to get students to live their faith. "Our hope is that these kids will leave the classroom and live that outside," he said.

But the challenges facing the schools may mean that some students, whose parents can't afford rising tuition, will have to rely more on church-based youth groups and Sunday Mass for their religion lessons.

Thirteen-year-old Amanda Russo, an eighth-grader at Our Lady of Lourdes who has attended the Melbourne school since kindergarten, said she's learned compassion, kindness and the importance of helping others through her Catholic schooling.

"Most of our education is based on trying to be a good example and being a Good Samaritan," she said. "We're always reminded to act like we would want Jesus to see us acting."

But because of expensive tuition costs, Amanda said she doesn't know if next year she'll attend Melbourne Central Catholic or go the public Melbourne High, where her older sister now attends.

Contact Brennan at 242-3722 or kbrennan@floridatoday.com.