Catholic schools facing wave of closures amid coronavirus pandemic

Already under pressure from falling enrollment, Catholic schools are taking a heavy hit from the coronavirus pandemic with 11 shutting down in Massachusetts amid a wave of closures nationwide.

“This is the largest number of closures in almost 50 years,” said Thomas Carroll, superintendent of schools for the Boston Archdiocese. “This is a pretty extraordinary moment for the archdiocese.”

Catholic education has been grappling with declining enrollment and financial challenges from lost tuition for years, but Carroll said a perfect storm of circumstances has left Catholic schools, “handcuffed by the economic realities of COVID.”

Two schools in Weymouth and ones in Marlborough, Braintree, Holbrook, Lowell, Winchester, Roxbury, Chelsea, Methuen and Kingston have permanently closed and Carroll warns that could be just the beginning.

Enrollment is down 7% from March, Carroll said, as many parents choose to forgo a private, Catholic education amid mass unemployment and the enduring pandemic and Carroll said the church won’t be able to fully quantify the hit until later this fall. He said he expects more schools to close come September and October.

“Unlike public schools, we don’t just send bills to taxpayers, people actually have to pay tuition or we can’t pay teachers,” he said. Roughly 32,000 students attend 99 Catholic schools within the archdiocese — a number that has been dwindling in recent years.

Carroll said the usual “bobbing and weaving” to keep Catholic school budgets in the black was wiped out as the pandemic also shuttered churches, cutting off collections and stopping cash flow for the church.

It’s a reality facing Catholic schools nationwide as the pandemic has forced the permanent closure of more than 140 Catholic schools, according to officials.

The school systems’ saving grace could come in the form of federal stimulus aid. Church leadership is lobbying the Trump administration to include scholarship assistance for economically disadvantaged families to use at Catholic or other private schools in the next aid package.

Three of the nation’s highest-ranking Catholic leaders, in a recent joint appeal, said Catholic schools “are presently facing their greatest financial crisis” and warned that hundreds more closures are likely without federal support.

“Because of economic loss and uncertainty, many families are confronting the wrenching decision to pull their children out of Catholic schools,” said New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley and Los Angeles Archbishop José Gomez, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/33VDSQb