Catholic Schools and Charter Schools: Competition, Co-Optation, and Confusion

• In Event: Beyond Economics: Using Sociological Lenses to Explore Market Forces in Education

Abstract

Objective
Catholic elementary schools have experienced widespread enrollment declines since 1965. In recent years scholars and church officials have suggested that one explanation for these declines is the competition generated by a growing number of charter schools which offer parents a similar style of education without the high cost. In this paper I analyze the collapse of Catholic elementary education in the United States with an emphasis on contrasting the pre and post charter eras.

Theoretical Approach & Related Literature
Neo-institutional theory and an organizational fields approach highlight some of the ways that charters have borrowed ideas (e.g. small school models, strict discipline) from Catholic schools. These same theories also shed light on some of the less well-known ways Catholic schools are now borrowing organizational forms and practices from charters, most notably through growing efforts to create “religious charters” or to offer tuition-free religious alternatives.

Several studies have suggested that charter schools have a negative impact on private school enrollment (Buddin 2012, Ewert 2013, Lackman 2013, McShane and Kelly 2014, Roy and Chakrabarti 2010) but many of these studies look at only one region, lack appropriate statistical controls, or find that results do not hold up to rigorous robustness checks.

Methods
This paper will bring together analyses of national enrollment data with a case study of the Archdiocese of New Orleans that has both a historically large Catholic school sector and rapid growth in the number of charter schools in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Findings
While some Catholic schools have closed in the era of widespread charter expansion, I argue that this should not be viewed simply as a story about organizational ecology and competitive market forces. Rather, an institutional and organizational fields approach, highlights the importance of understanding how broader social forces have created a largely bifurcated system of Catholic education that privileges elite high school academies over parish subsidized elementary schools serving primarily poor and non-Catholic populations.

The analysis complicates the narrative that charters are a threat to Catholic schools by showing declines were happening before charters became widespread and the path of decline has not universally accelerated because of the presence of charters.

Significance
Understanding the factors that shape the educational organizational field and the place of Catholic schools in this field is important for several reasons most notably that any decline in the private sector increases the costs of accommodating such students in the public sector. Given Catholic schools long-standing reputation for providing exemplary education for the students who tend to be served by the lowest performing public schools many Catholic school proponents argue that these institutions with proven track records deserve as much state support as secular charters with unproven results. Critics, of course, will note issues of selection bias and cite examples of underperforming Catholic schools. Regardless, it is important that Catholic schools which continue to educate between 5 and 15 percent of the school aged population remain part of any discussion of market based reform and schools as institutions.

Author

• Carol Ann MacGregor, Loyola University New Orleans