Enrollment at Gateway Christian School is headed for a 10 percent drop this fall, and Principal Sam Postlewaite knows one big reason: the bad economy.
Scrimping in hard economic times, religious families are deciding which is the bigger priority: private, faith-based education or the money saved by choosing free or lower-cost schools.
At Gateway in Virginia Beach, Postlewaite predicted he'll have 375 to 380 students this fall, compared with 420 last year.
"Obviously, it's just tough times" for parents, he said. "Either job wages haven't gone up, or the cost of everything else is going up." Tuition at Gateway is about $4,000, he said.
Private schools tend to feel the pinch in recessionary times, said Georgey McVey, president of the Virginia Council for Private Education, an accrediting organization for private schools.
"People are trying to decide where they can cut back, and there is a free alternative," he said, referring to public schools.
Parents who prefer faith-based education have fewer choices: home schooling or shopping around for a cheaper religious day school, he said.
South Hampton Roads has dozens of faith-based schools, including Norfolk Christian Schools, where Jane Duffey, the academic dean, said she's seen a 20 percent increase in requests from student households for additional financial aid. Tuition ranges from $6,300 in elementary grades to $8,700 in the senior year.
"In the admissions office, we're getting a considerable number of calls from people asking right off the bat for that help," she said of prospective students. She said enrollment is down about 2 percent from last year's 750 students.
At St. Pius X Catholic School, Sister Linda Taber, the principal, said enrollment is steady but scholarship giving is up $20,000. The school encouraged every student's household to apply.
"We have had people say their work hours have been cut. It's hard times," Taber said. Tuition ranges from $3,600 for in-parish students to $5,100 for out-of-parish students.
She said her school lost one student household not to tuition costs, but to the high cost of gas.
"The mom told me it would be a 60-mile commute for her each day," driving children to and from St. Pius X, Taber said. "The gas was the issue." The school does not offer busing.
At Hebrew Academy of Tidewater, Heather Moore has seen a big increase in requests for tuition assistance. Also, parents are asking for larger amounts of aid.
"Some people don't want to ask for aid," said Moore, the academy's financial officer. "But I think that feeling is passing when people are deciding whether their child can go to day school or have to go to public school."
Moore said the increase in scholarship requests started last year. Now, 40 percent of the 200-student school, which runs from pre-kindergarten through the sixth grade, gets help. Tuition is about $10,000 annually, she said.
"I'm hearing a lot that a spouse has lost their job, they'll have to live on one income for a while," Moore said. "I'm seeing more of that than in the last 10 years."
Academy parents include Helen Pomerantz, whose son, Bret, is entering fifth grade. A daughter, Dara, is entering seventh grade in a secular private school because the academy extends only through the sixth grade.
Pomerantz said she'll travel 40 miles a day driving her children to and from school, at a cost of $300 a month in gas.
Her husband, Alex, works in the real estate sector, which is in a slump. To offset education costs, Pomerantz canceled her family's annual Club Med vacation, skipped summer camp for her children and is cooking more meals at home. Pomerantz, a cardiac therapist, is looking for a part-time job after being a stay-at-home mom.
The family could send both children to the public school across the street from their home in the Western Branch section of Chesapeake, she said. But "the experience we get by sending them to the Hebrew Academy is so much more important."
"It's the values they learn, and they learn more about their religion than I learned in my entire life."
Steven G. Vegh, (757) 446-2417, steven.vegh@pilotonline.com
Delicious
Digg
Reddit
Facebook
Google
Yahoo
Motivation, not content
is what gives you better results with home schooling and private secular and religious schools. You have interested parents, small class size and a policy of being able to expel any problem children. Public schools, on the other hand, have huge classes (not enough teachers), absentee parents and the onus of having to educate virtually everyone who fogs a mirror. That is why we need to revamp our public schools and the community relations with the families to make sure that we don't hand our countries future over to a poorly educated younger population. Tough job, but Americans haven't shied away from serious challenges in the past, so no reason to think we can't do it now.
swd2k
Apparently you haven't tried to sell a home recently.
Actually Ethan...
Home school kids, private school kids, and "faith based" kids score much higher across the board on pretty much every standardized test by 20 to 30%. It's gotten to the point where if a faith based home school kid and faith based school kid outscores their peers on tests the Collage will now dis-credit creationism teaching even though they out score their counterparts. Just to level the playing field...
swd2k the Dems and ethanol?
The Energy Policy Act of 2005 mandated ethanol production quotas. I believe the Democrats took over a year later. To be fair, both Republicans and Democrats fall all over themselves during Iowa primary season to curry the favors of generally right leaning midwest farmers, and ethanol is the result. Pretty much a disaster economically, environmentally and politically.
But I thought you might want to know who was to blame.
bad economic times?
Really? Where, when? The only people that are crying bad economic times are the "hope and change" crowd that get their facts from soundbites on ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, and MSNBC. This economy is not in trouble.
Interest rates are low, unemployment is low, inflation is stable, but overall, we're fine. Yes, our dollar is weak, and production is slowing a bit, but people are still earning, cars are still selling, homes are still selling, etc.
Fuel prices are up, but thank your Democratically controlled US Congress for that fun (think ethanol....) Just because B Hussein Obama says the sky is falling doesn't make it so!
What is more important -
"Pomerantz canceled her family's annual Club Med vacation, skipped summer camp for her children and is cooking more meals at home"
Well what a sacrifice for the kids, no Club Med!
I think public school (since it is across the street from the home) would expose them to the real world. Teach them how to cope with the daily issues of reality. I went through public schools as did most of society - the working class that is - and turned out better for it!
And heaven forbid you should have to cook a meal for you family!! Way to go mom!!
Ethan
Do you have a society in mind you think we should emulate? I have never heard of a country where atheism was mandated (at least not for long). Are you really so eternally secure in your own system that you believe you could and should mandate how the rest of us teach our children about religion? What if you are wrong and everyone goes to hell forever after listening to you teach them atheism? Do you really have no part of you that says "I just might not know all the answers to everything"? I am a born-again Christian and very sure of my doctrine but . . . I won't tell *anyone* that I know all the answers. People who say that (and maybe that is not what you are trying to say) scare me. Cheers, MGM
try home schooling
If religious families are so afraid to expose their kids to the real world inwhich they live then teach them yourself at home. That will save you even more money.
Everyone....
...has a civic responsibility to fund public schools...reguardless if you has a child there...for the public welfare...and you want to use my portion to fund a voucher to send your child to a private school?...get a second job!...the schools I pay for are great...and have 5 children as proof of that...if you want more than that you need to pay for it!
Unrest Your Case, Newt
"...we pay taxes for a better society. It does not matter if we use the services or not." But we should demand fair value for the taxes that we pay. We're certainly not getting it from any public school system. Look at the tuition charged by private schools in the article; it's 1/3 to 1/2 the cost per student at government schools. I'd bet next year's W-2 that most of those private schools achieve far better results than the public schools.
Public schools will moor in mediocrity until we force them to get better. Hold them accountable for results and pull their funding if they can't or won't perform. We owe at least that to our children and to the taxpayers.
Taxes, NCLB and hard times
Indeed, taxes cannot be paid a la carte. As far as children are concerned, people without them subsidize those who do to a large extent. In addition to not using the schools, childless people do not get the child tax credit parents claim on their taxes. That's a $1000 per child handout single folks don't get. I have children, incidentally, but when I didn't I understood the value of ensuring the next generation is well-educated and productive. It's just part of being a citizen.
Since the principle sponsor of NCLB was Ted Kennedy, I don't think the "Republican consiracy" idea holds much water.
This is NOT intended as an attack on or insult of the people in the story when I say: The Pilot could have found someone more appropriately affected by "hard times" than someone who can afford $20,000 in tuition and whose sacrifice is not going to Club Med.
Free your mind and the rest will follow
"Faith Based Education" is Child Neglect. Filling young people's minds with wives tales as facts. They'd be better off in public schools.
I rest my case!
The last two comments about vouchers are perfect for the argument that I brought up on the AYP article this week. I was told that No Child Left Behind was a Republican ploy to make schools look like they are failing so that private school vouchers could be passed. I was skeptical (and I am a republican) but these comments convince me.
Your logic that you should get a voucher could be carried to mean that those couples with no children should get their money back for not using the schools. I should get a rebate for all the services that taxes pay for that I don't use. I don't use Welfare, so please give me some of my taxes back. I don't visit the Sandler Center - rebate please. Come to think of it, I have never had to call an ambulance. Only those sick people should pay for that service. Stop taxing me and make them pay when they call for an ambulance or fire department.
The fact is we pay taxes for a better society. It does not matter if we use the services or not. We are not entitled to a refund for services we don't use.
Not sure about vouchers . . .
Will they indicate that the feds can then weigh in at the private school level with demands that certain curricula be used, certain philosophies be taught, etc.? If so, I know of two private schools that won't be taking them. Cheers, MGM
hmmm...
this is an example of why those who choose to send their children to a private school should be able to apply a voucher for the money they've already paid for education and use it in the manner they decide for their children. right now those who choose to send their children to a private school or even home school are getting ripped off. why should people have to pay for a service they're not using? and why aren't the local school boards, city councils, state bodies helping this along and doing the right thing in this matter? hmmm... just another example of the love of money being the root of all evil. the evil in this case of defrauding one's neighbor.
Hard Choice
It is a hard choice to make when you have less available money to pay for rising private school costs. However when you read articles like the Va-Pilot one yesterday, about how 1/4 of the HR public schools aren't meeting fed standards for improvement and that it was a 71% increase from last year, you have legitimate concerns on the quality of education in public schools. We've cut back on a lot of recreational expenses, most of them, to keep our kids in a quality school. Our kids are our investment in the future. I really feel for those who have no other choices. Too bad the teacher's unions are so set against tuition vouchers which have successfully improved grades and education for the poorest students in DC and Florida.
Time for Vouchers?
Think of what would happen if all of a sudden all the “religious” schools in Hampton Roads were forced to shut their doors and the public schools were to take in all of the students that once were served by the private “religious” schools. The schools would be inundated. They can barely meet the needs of the students now and add to that an influx of students with special needs and the needs of the existing students would suffer. The “religious” schools are able to differentiate their curriculum to serve the needs of the various types of learners that exist. The public system may say to are able, but in what format? They still must abide by SOL requirements and the results published in the paper just a few days ago verify that problems still exist. Vouchers to families who have already made the commitment to “religious” education should be strongly considered as an option.
impoverished logic
You can thank a teacher for writing that gibberish, MostlyConfused. Your taxes are lower than most countries, and you get a good return on your dollar.
You are not financially poor, but your ideas are impoverished.
Free?
Let me check my income, real estate, and sales taxes to see how free those schools are. They're just the ones you're forced to pay for whether you use them or not.
Oh so sad
Oh so sad, too bad, the family needs to give up an ANNUAL Club Med vacation. Children cannot go to summer camp. It is hard to feel too bad when the story focuses on the elite and more privileged. A private education does provide a better education in some regards, but not all public schools are bad. If a family says they need the religion based, then there are many churches of various denominations that have weekday Evenings services and classes for younger children.
The article though showing a plight of some. used a poor example with the Club Med family. Not the common "folk".