Private Schools Are Becoming More Elite

In 1925, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling that cemented the country’s thinking on school choice: Families, the justices concluded in Pierce v. Society of Sisters, had the right to decide where to send their children to school and thus could choose private education. Catholic schools, which were the target of the lawsuit, rejoiced. They could continue serving as an alternative to the United States’ system of “common schools.”

The Catholic Church went on to dominate America’s private-school world for several decades. But starting in the 1970s that dominance started to fade—and by the late 1990s, it was clear that the country was witnessing of what it was half a century ago, according to of federal data published in the latest issue of . The National Catholic Education Association that more than 100 Catholic schools were consolidated or closed altogether during the 2017–18 year alone.