Why are so many public school kids applying to Catholic high school?

[Anonymous]

I attended Catholic high school 20 years ago and recall only being in classes with other kids from Catholic K-8 schools. I’m curious why so many kids from public schools are applying to schools like Gonzaga, Visi, SJC, AHC, etc.

[Anonymous]

Plenty of DC folks in their 40s and 50s followed the same path. Whatever the situation where you grew up, this is not a recent phenomenon in DC.

[Anonymous]

Far less expensive than other privates and easier to get into

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Far less expensive than other privates and easier to get into

And DCPS sucks.

[Anonymous]

A lot of public school parents, even the fairly liberal ones, are uncomfortable with the progressive indoctrination that is now occurring in the public and private schools. They are seeking a more balanced, moderate environment where kids are taught to think for themselves. And yes, it’s completely ironic that the best place for this is actually a Catholic school.

[Anonymous]

We witnessed a significant change for the worst in our public schools post-Covid.

[Anonymous]

It feels like public schools are dumbing down curricula to improve scores across the board. Also, yeah a ton of indoctrination and oppressor/oppressee stuff being attributed to everything can turn parents off.

[Anonymous]

Covid exposed how bad the public schools are. We never thought ours kids would go to private school yet they are now in private HS.

[Anonymous]

Our daughter at SR has had tons of new classmates from public over the past few years, it is a noticeable increase. They seem surprised that middle school girls are expected to do more than an hour of homework per night even to get Bs and that they are all reading full books as a class even in lower school. Maybe the publics have gone downhill.

[Anonymous]

This was 8 years ago, but our son, who attended MCPS through middle school, moved to a Catholic HS. At the time, this was unusual and he had very few classmates coming from public MS. I think it has shifted significantly since then with more coming from public schools. This is positive for Catholic high schools as it widens the applicant pool and provides opportunities to diversify the student body. This likely also elevates the academic levels of the students entering the HS due to the wider applicant pool.

[Anonymous]

I went to visitation (not Visi) 35 years ago, and almost all of the girls from Virginia were from public school. VAjust doesn’t have the catholic k-8 like Maryland does.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A lot of public school parents, even the fairly liberal ones, are uncomfortable with the progressive indoctrination that is now occurring in the public and private schools. They are seeking a more balanced, moderate environment where kids are taught to think for themselves. And yes, it’s completely ironic that the best place for this is actually a Catholic school.

This is not why. The pandemic exposed the priorities of public schools and school boards and it was not the children so people looked for alternatives. Catholic high schools are cheaper and provide structure so fewer behavioral issues. Also many Catholic high schools are feeders to top schools like Georgetown (Visi has a dual enrollment program), Notre Dame and Boston College.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of public school parents, even the fairly liberal ones, are uncomfortable with the progressive indoctrination that is now occurring in the public and private schools. They are seeking a more balanced, moderate environment where kids are taught to think for themselves. And yes, it’s completely ironic that the best place for this is actually a Catholic school.

This is not why. The pandemic exposed the priorities of public schools and school boards and it was not the children so people looked for alternatives. Catholic high schools are cheaper and provide structure so fewer behavioral issues. Also many Catholic high schools are feeders to top schools like Georgetown (Visi has a dual enrollment program), Notre Dame and Boston College.

Yours are additional correct reasons, but the PP’s comment is also true. We left public because school time was wasted on DEI stuffs instead of strengthening kids’ academics, making sure they’re reading and doing math at levels they should be. Also, class sizes in the publics are ridiculously large. Kids get lost and are overlooked. Parents’ concerns are disregarded and not respected. Teachers are overworked and overwhelmed. For the large amount of taxpayers money thrown into our public schools, it’s still a disaster.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of public school parents, even the fairly liberal ones, are uncomfortable with the progressive indoctrination that is now occurring in the public and private schools. They are seeking a more balanced, moderate environment where kids are taught to think for themselves. And yes, it’s completely ironic that the best place for this is actually a Catholic school.

This is not why. The pandemic exposed the priorities of public schools and school boards and it was not the children so people looked for alternatives. Catholic high schools are cheaper and provide structure so fewer behavioral issues. Also many Catholic high schools are feeders to top schools like Georgetown (Visi has a dual enrollment program), Notre Dame and Boston College.

I think it is definitely a combination of both. The progressive indoctrination was exposed during the pandemic when parents were in the same room as their kids during virtual learning and could overhear what was being taught.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of public school parents, even the fairly liberal ones, are uncomfortable with the progressive indoctrination that is now occurring in the public and private schools. They are seeking a more balanced, moderate environment where kids are taught to think for themselves. And yes, it’s completely ironic that the best place for this is actually a Catholic school.

This is not why. The pandemic exposed the priorities of public schools and school boards and it was not the children so people looked for alternatives. Catholic high schools are cheaper and provide structure so fewer behavioral issues. Also many Catholic high schools are feeders to top schools like Georgetown (Visi has a dual enrollment program), Notre Dame and Boston College.

I think it is definitely a combination of both. The progressive indoctrination was exposed during the pandemic when parents were in the same room as their kids during virtual learning and could overhear what was being taught.

This was a main driver for us moving to Catholic for HS. Progressive middle school was pushing a pro-LGB agenda with mandatory sexualized literature, social clubs hosting rainbow theme pizza lunch, counselors looking for reasons to be outraged. New school sticks to education and teachers don't bring up sexual topics.