What has happened to these schools in the Cleveland Metro area????

[Cleveland_Collector]

St. Ignatius: $14,500/yr
Benedictine: $9,900/yr (with aid)
Lake Catholic: $9,100/yr
Holy Name: $8,500/yr

Each school costs about the same or even more than 2 semesters at a state college. This has the most to do with it.

[Kamms]

Originally Posted by Cleveland_Collector

St. Ignatius: $14,500/yr
Benedictine: $9,900/yr (with aid)
Lake Catholic: $9,100/yr
Holy Name: $8,500/yr

Each school costs about the same or even more than 2 semesters at a state college. This has the most to do with it.

Suburban flight, which means option to attend local quality public schools, smaller families and, yes, the tuition.

Let's not forget 1970s forced busing!

[baritone108]

I think the end of forced busing had a lot to do with it. Also, sometimes the others Catholic schools simply wouldn't play nice. For example, St. Augustine was in a large, old building. While the school had a good number of students it didn't have enough so that the tuition would cover the required building maintenance. In the meantime, the local Bishop was closing several churches and schools. Three of the closed elementary schools combined to form a new school and wanted to move into the St. Augustine building. St. Augustine offered to share it with them, the new elementary school refused. So St. Augustine closed.

[reretarff]

Originally Posted by bluecarebear

Or they tear down the houses and create more metroparks!

Tear down the houses in Cleveland and turn it into the wilderness....

Not the best idea ever

[reretarff]

Originally Posted by SquareBetterThanAll

Suburbs are a plague across the US. It's been pointed out that we seriously lack an influx from immigration, which has shored up the populations of central cities the country over.

Would LA, Dallas, Phoenix, Miami, Atlanta, on and on and on, be the way they are without the significant influx from immigration they receive? No. People booking it for the suburbs and crappy central city public schools are practically a given in any major city in the US.

Suburbs aren't bad. People just took advantage of them. Too many developments.

[thatclassygirl21]

two words for you: charter schools

back in the day, many inner city parents used to scrape together money and work multiple jobs to put their kids through good catholic schools. now these same parents enroll their children in charter schools because they're free. can't say that they're better than CMSD schools but, they're free as opposed to the tuition they'd have to pay for charter schools. and those who can move and relocate to better areas, do. those who don't? send their kids to charter schools.

[ECBeastor]

Originally Posted by thatclassygirl21

two words for you: charter schools

back in the day, many inner city parents used to scrape together money and work multiple jobs to put their kids through good catholic schools. now these same parents enroll their children in charter schools because they're free. can't say that they're better than CMSD schools but, they're free as opposed to the tuition they'd have to pay for charter schools. and those who can move and relocate to better areas, do. those who don't? send their kids to charter schools.

A lot of inner city Cleveland kids get vouchers now and can go to the city's Catholic schools at little or no extra expense. This has turned catholic schools like Metro Catholic on W. 54th, St. Adalbert on E. 83rd or St. Ignatius of Antioch on West Blvd. into de facto public schools. They are probably a lot better than the public schools in the area since the parents care enough to seek out a better option, but they still are nowhere a suburban parent wants their kids to go.

However, to the discussion at hand, the #1 factor in declining enrollment is likely cost. Over the past 40 years the number of men and women of the cloth in teaching has declined significantly and this has had a direct impact on cost of tuition. The tuition increase has far outpaced real inflation and thus priced out the traditional families that attended these schools, blue collar middle class inner city residents. It's magnified by the average salary/pay for blue collar middle class professions having fallen relative to the average national income and the opportunities are far fewer. Further magnifying it is the population shift to the burbs.

[Cleverfield]

Here's an interesting article about what's going on at VASJ. The school was on the verge of closing, but it changed its focus from preserving what existed and accepting all applicants, to selecting students based on how well they meshed with the school's social and academic philosophies. It's now the fastest growing private school in Ohio, and appeals to people seeking a racially and gender equal environment, with good academics.

Colorblind and Rising: What’s Behind The Surprising success of Cleveland’s Villa Angela-St. Joseph High School? | Belt Magazine | Dispatches From The Rust Belt