【中美创新时报2024 年 12 月 5 日编译讯】（记者温友平编译）马萨诸塞州私立学校的入学人数在数十年间持续下降，就读天主教、寄宿和其他形式私立学校的学生越来越少。而且似乎看不到任何反弹的迹象。《波士顿环球报》记者Christopher Huffaker 对此作了下述报道。
在马萨诸塞州全州范围内，过去几年私立学校的入学人数最多处于停滞状态。但从长远来看，趋势主要是下降。这导致全州的私立学校纷纷关门。
然而，在纽顿、布鲁克莱恩、尼德姆和韦尔斯利等州的富裕社区中，这一趋势出现了一些小问题。
尽管可以进入排名靠前的公立学校，但其中一些社区的家庭仍在选择学费昂贵的私立学校。
近年来，尤其是自新冠疫情爆发以来，这些社区的私立学校入学人数激增。2020 年 9 月，寻求全日制、面对面学校的家长转学，而公立学校仍保持远程或混合模式，许多人再也没有回来。其他人则因为是否取消高级班的争论而转向私立学校，比如剑桥。
但这些学区是例外，而不是常态。
那么，这种下滑趋势背后的原因是什么呢？
私立学校入学率减少了近一半
该州公布了过去 40 年来儿童就读学校类型的数据。传统的地方公立学校停滞不前，去年约有 967,000 名学生，而 1984-85 年则有 990,000 名学生。几乎所有其他学校部门都取得了增长——特许贸易学校、职业学校、自愿融合计划 METCO 等区外计划，甚至家庭学校。
但马萨诸塞州私立学校的入学人数一直在稳步下降。去年，约有 66,500 名马萨诸塞州学生就读私立学校，比 1984-85 年的 135,000 名学生下降了 49%。
这种趋势已经持续了几十年，而且没有逆转的迹象，尤其是在学生总体人数停滞不前、天主教学校继续关门的情况下。除了最昂贵的精英私立学校（这些学校对特定地区的富裕家庭有吸引力）之外，马萨诸塞州私立学校入学人数下降的阻力可能会持续存在。与美国其他一些地区不同，州立学校代金券不太可能在马萨诸塞州起到拯救作用。
天主教学校流失学生人数最多，但并非个例
该州还公布了自 2001-2002 年以来每所私立学校的入学人数记录。《波士顿环球报》试图按学校类型对所有这些学校进行分类，例如天主教学校、寄宿学校和特殊教育学校。
分类和数据可能并不完善，但可以清楚地看出，天主教学校一直是私立学校中最大的一类，也是流失学生最多的一类，从 2002-2003 年的近 80,000 名学生减少到去年的约 31,000 名。
天主教学校的衰落是全国性的，且有多种原因，但主要集中在波士顿等东北部城市，这些城市曾经非常受欢迎。哈佛大学教育学教授理查德·穆尔南 (Richard Murnane) 与斯坦福大学的肖恩·里尔登 (Sean Reardon) 一起研究了私立学校入学率的长期趋势，他指出了三个主要驱动因素：
1. 天主教神父或修女的职业急剧下降，推高了天主教学校的劳动力成本，因为他们不得不以更高的工资聘请非神职人员来填补空缺。从 1970 年到 2016 年，天主教学校教职人员中神职人员的比例从 48% 下降到不到 3%。
“这当然导致学费上涨，”穆尔南说。“这迫使许多低收入家庭离开天主教学校，因为他们付不起学费。”
2. 天主教性虐待危机既降低了人们对天主教学校的兴趣，也使波士顿和纽约等教区向受害者支付了巨额赔偿金。
“这些钱过去是用来补贴低收入教区的天主教学校的，”穆尔南指出。
3. 最后，Murnane 表示，另一个重要因素是中产阶级家庭迁往郊区。
“过去，城市里，尤其是波士顿，有很多中产阶级爱尔兰和意大利家庭，他们过去常常把孩子送到天主教学校，”Murnane 指出。“他们搬到郊区，因为他们认为公立学校更好。”
富人与穷人
Murnane 表示，天主教学校的衰落，加上收入不平等的加剧，意味着富裕家庭现在比中产阶级家庭更有可能把孩子送到私立学校。
“你能为你的孩子做的最重要的事情可能是确保他们接受良好的教育，”Murnane 表示。“在牛顿和布鲁克林，人们对此的反应是支付私立学校的费用。他们将财富传给下一代的方法之一就是确保他们接受良好的教育。”
因此，随着波士顿、斯普林菲尔德和伍斯特的中产阶级和工薪阶层家庭对天主教学校的依赖度下降，私立学校在牛顿、剑桥和布鲁克林蓬勃发展。
特许学校的增长部分是以牺牲天主教学校为代价的
波士顿学院教育学教授肖恩·多尔蒂 (Shaun Dougherty) 发现了天主教学校衰落的另一个原因，这也与马萨诸塞州城市地区和富裕郊区之间的差异有关：特许学校的兴起。他们发现，当一所新的特许学校开办时，附近的天主教学校更有可能关闭。多尔蒂说，这两种学校类型都主要分布在城市地区。
“天主教学校严格来说是独立学校，因为它们是非公立学校，但它们往往，至少在 K-8 阶段，与高度选择性或高价格的独立学校处于不同的市场，”多尔蒂说。“在 20 世纪后期，天主教学校开始招收越来越多的非天主教徒，所以我们可能会认为特许学校是更好的替代品。”
这意味着，随着特许学校在波士顿等城市地区的扩张，这种增长在一定程度上是以牺牲波士顿天主教私立学校为代价的。另一方面，牛顿去年只有五名学生就读特许学校，因为那里的传统公立学校享有很高的教育声誉。
联邦关于私立学校种族人口统计数据显示，截至 2020-21 年，非宗教学校和天主教学校各有约 34,000 名马萨诸塞州学生。但天主教学校的黑人和拉丁裔学生约有 7,700 名，而全州世俗私立学校的黑人和拉丁裔学生约有 4,400 名。（其他宗教私立学校也有约 11,000 名学生。）
私立学校在哪里发展，在哪里萎缩？
自 1984-85 年以来，马萨诸塞州绝大多数城镇的私立学校学生比例有所下降。在大多数社区，只有极小比例的儿童就读私立学校。
但包括牛顿、剑桥和布鲁克林在内的少数几个学区却例外。私立学校在马萨诸塞州西部、北岸北部以及科德角和群岛的部分地区也获得了学生份额。
题图：由于学校面临兴趣下降和成本上升的问题，牛顿的阿尔维尼亚山高中等天主教学校已经关闭了几十年。阿尔维尼亚山高中于 2022-23 学年末关闭。David L. Ryan/Globe Staff
附原英文报道：
Mass. private school enrollment is declining, despite an uptick in Newton, Cambridge. Here’s why.
By Christopher Huffaker Globe Staff,Updated December 5, 2024
Catholic schools like Newton’s Mount Alvernia High School have been closing for decades, as the schools face declining interest and rising costs. Mount Alvernia closed at the end of the 2022-23 school year.David L. Ryan/Globe Staff
Enrollment in Massachusetts private schools is in an unrelenting multidecade decline, with fewer students attending Catholic, boarding, and other forms of private school.
And there doesn’t appear to be any rebound in sight.
Statewide, the last few years have been, at most, a plateau in private school enrollment. But long-term, the trend is overwhelmingly one of decline. It’s led to private schools closing their doors throughout the state.
However, there is a bit of a hiccup to that trend among the state’s well-off communities like in Newton, Brookline, Needham, and Wellesley.
Despite having access to the top-ranked public schools, families in some of those communities are still choosing private schools, where tuition is costly.
In recent years, and particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic, those communities have seen private school enrollment surge. Parents seeking full-time, in-person school switched while public schools remained remote or hybrid in September 2020, and many never returned. Others were driven to private schools by debates about whether to eliminate advanced classes, as in Cambridge.
But those districts are the exception, not the rule.
So what’s behind the downward spiral?
Private school enrollment cut nearly in half
The state has published data on what types of schools children attend for the last 40 years. Traditional, local public schools have stagnated, with about 967,000 students last year versus 990,000 in 1984-85. Almost every other school sector has gained — charter trade schools, vocational schools, out-of-district programs like the voluntary integration program METCO, and even home schooling.
But Massachusetts private school enrollment has declined steadily. Last year, about 66,500 Massachusetts students went to private schools, down 49 percent from 135,000 in 1984-85.
The trend is decades-old and shows no sign of reversing, particularly with the overall student population stagnant and Catholic schools continuing to shutter their doors. Outside of the most expensive, elite private schools that appeal to families with means in particular areas, the headwinds driving down private school enrollment in Massachusetts are likely to persist. And unlike in some other parts of the country, state school vouchers are unlikely to come to the rescue in Massachusetts.
Catholic schools have lost the most, but they’re not alone
The state also publishes records back to 2001-02 on enrollment numbers for every individual private school. The Globe attempted to categorize all those schools by school type — such as Catholic, boarding, and special education schools.
The categorization — and the data — may be imperfect, but makes clear that Catholic schools, always the largest private school category, are also the category that has lost the most students, from nearly 80,000 students in 2002-03 to about 31,000 last year.
The decline in Catholic schools is nationwide and multi-causal, though particularly concentrated in northeastern cities like Boston where they were once very popular. Harvard education professor Richard Murnane, who has studied long-term trends in private school enrollment alongside Stanford’s Sean Reardon, noted three primary drivers:
1. The vocation of being a Catholic priest or nun has declined dramatically, driving up labor costs for Catholic schools as they then had to hire non-clerical teachers at higher wages to fill the void. From 1970 to 2016, the percentage of Catholic school faculty who were clergy declined from 48 percent to less than 3 percent.
“That of course led to increases in tuition,” Murnane said. “That drove a lot of low-income families out of Catholic schools because they couldn’t afford to pay.”
2. The Catholic sex abuse crisis both reduced interest in Catholic schools and cost dioceses like Boston and New York huge settlements to victims.
“That was money that used to go to subsidizing Catholic schools in low-income parishes,” Murnane noted.
3. Finally, Murnane said, another big factor was middle-class families moving to the suburbs.
“There used to [be] an awful lot of middle-class Irish and Italian families in cities, particularly Boston, who used to send their kids to Catholic schools,” Murnane noted. “They moved to suburbs, where they perceive the public schools to be better.”
Haves vs. have nots
The decline of Catholic schools, combined with growing income inequality, means wealthy families are now much more likely to send their children to private schools than are middle class families, Murnane said.
“The most important thing you can probably do for your child is be sure they get a good education,” Murnane said. “In Newton and Brookline, the way people respond to that is by paying for private schools. One way they can pass on their wealth to the next generation is to make sure they get a good education.”
So as Catholic schools have declined with middle- and working-class families in Boston, Springfield, and Worcester, private schools have surged in Newton, Cambridge, and Brookline.
Charters grew partially at expense of Catholic schools
Boston College education professor Shaun Dougherty identified another cause of the Catholic school decline that also links to the divergence between Massachusetts’ urban districts and wealthy suburbs: the rise of charter schools. When a new charter school opens, they found, nearby Catholic schools are more likely to close. And both school types are disproportionately urban, Dougherty said.
“Catholic schools are technically independent schools in that they’re non-public schools but they tend to be, at least at the K-8 level, in a different market than highly selective or high-in-price independent schools,” Dougherty said. “Catholic schools, over the latter part of the 20th century, started to enroll more and more non-Catholics, so we might think of charter schools as a better substitute.”
That means as charter schools expanded in urban districts, like Boston, that growth came partly at the expense of Boston’s Catholic private schools. Newton, on the other hand, had just five students attending charter schools last year, as the traditional public schools there have strong educational reputations.
Federal data on the racial demographics of private schools show that as of 2020-21, non-religious and Catholic schools each had about 34,000 Massachusetts students. But there were about 7,700 Black and Latino Catholic school students, versus about 4,400 Black and Latino students at secular private schools across the state. (There were also about 11,000 students at other religious private schools.)
Where have private schools grown, shrunk?
Since 1984-85, the percentage of students attending private schools has declined in the vast majority of Massachusetts cities and towns. In most communities, a very small percentage of children attend private schools.
But a handful of districts, including Newton, Cambridge, and Brookline, stand out as exceptions. Private schools have also gained student share in parts of Western Massachusetts, the northern part of the North Shore, and Cape Cod and the Islands.
