Going Private

But recently, questions about private schools’ inherent
superiority were raised in an October 1994 Money magazine report called
“Why Private Schools Are Rarely Worth the Money.” The results, according to the
story’s authors, surprised even them. Some findings include: Students in the
best public schools outperform their private school peers; public school
teachers have more academic qualifications; good public schools have good
curricula; and – most significantly – public school class sizes aren’t larger
than those in private school. In fact, sometimes public school classes are
smaller. Finally, this conclusion: “If you are the parents of… kids [in
private school], here’s the bottom line: You are probably wasting your
hard-earned money.”

Keeping some of Money‘s conclusions in mind, four
Austin-area Christian schools were selected and observed on several points:
atmosphere, class sizes, teacher training, facilities, and parental
involvement. The schools were chosen from among 23 local private schools
serving 69 low-income children who are sponsored in part by the Children’s
Educational Opportunity (CEO) Foundation, a private scholarship foundation. CEO
will pay half of a child’s private school tuition, up to $1,000, for three
years. (The foundation’s experiment has been conducted, in part, for the
purpose of furnishing proof that a voucher system would raise the achievement
of those disadvantaged children.)

I should note that these schools in no way are intended to
represent a cross section of the area’s private schools. They merely serve as
examples of the more “mainstream” (if such a word can be applied here) and
financially accessible Christian schools. The more academically exclusive prep
schools, with price tags to match – such as St. Michael’s – were left out. So
were “fringe” schools like Duane Lake Academy, a combination home
school/Christian academy. With the exception of a few Montessori elementary
schools, most of the affordable, private, K-8 or K-12 education in this city is
available only from parochial or religious schools.

Indeed, the emphasis on religious training – Bible study,
Catholic catechism, and the like, even if it does not coincide with the
family’s religious tradition – is the foremost reason why parents choose
private education. (The apparent unceasing popularity of Catholic schools among
non-Catholics is a testament to this trend.) The second reason is the promise
of safety, security, and discipline on campus. Academics, in fact, seems to be
the last factor in selecting private schooling.

Christ Community Christian School

8210 S. First St., K-12

Located in far South Austin, this campus has a rather relaxed
atmosphere which belies the staunch, evangelical Christian philosophy driving
the school’s curriculum. An informational flyer says that CCCS was founded
because “the decline in American Education can be directly attributed to
`throwing the Lord God out of the educational process’… Our job as educators
is to teach and train young minds that their ultimate happiness, both in this
life and the next, can only be found in obeying God’s laws.”

CCCS, which began in 1982 as a sort of home school, is not
connected, financially or otherwise, with any church. As a result, its
facilities are the poorest of any of the schools surveyed. Portable buildings
erected on an asphalt parking lot house the classrooms and office. There is a
running track at the rear of the property and a fenced-in basketball court, but
no indoor gymnasium. A playscape for the younger children is set upon a narrow
snake of gravel behind the office. There is no cafeteria, per se, but a “snack
shack,” where food is sold.

The school’s display advertisement in the Yellow Pages boasts
a “Bob Jones curriculum,” referring to texts and other instructional materials
published by the eponymous, fundamentalist Christian university in Greenville,
South Carolina. Whatever the academic subject, Bob Jones has a text with a
Biblical perspective. Some subjects lend themselves more easily than others to
this construct. For example, Unit I of Geography for Christian Schools – “The World As God Made It” – explains the formation of the Earth in this way:
“Many people refuse to recognize God as Creator of the World. Scientists have
developed theories that some chance happening in the universe formed the earth.
They think that the lands and seas are the result of billions of years of the
constant working of natural forces and that all life is a result of evolution.
We must realize that these people avoid the evidence of creation because they
do not know… the God of creation… If men acknowledge Him as Creator,
however, they must also see themselves in need of the Saviour…
[Bible-believing scientists] estimate the world to be about 10,000 years
old.”

Algebra I for Christian Schools is
somewhat less emphatic about establishing a Biblical reason for studying that
subject. On this visit, the high school math teacher, Max Smith, happened to be
using a mainstream text with his Algebra II class. He is also the school
principal, whom all students address as “sir.” A pleasant and easy going man,
Smith runs his classroom not unlike a public school teacher might. One male
student, obviously a school heartthrob and class clown, employed the usual
diversionary tactics to avoid taking a quiz for which he was not prepared:
offering to leave the room to retrieve papers Smith had left in his office,
asking his classmates to lend him a pencil, attempting to engage Smith in a
conversation wholly unrelated to algebra long enough to run out the class
period. Although he never became impatient, Smith did become more stern as the
student ran out of excuses, finally sending the young man into the other side
of the portable to take the quiz. A few minutes later, the student abruptly
popped back into the room to ask a question, interrupting Smith’s lesson for
the rest of the class on fractals. With great equanimity, the teacher told the
boy to figure it out for himself.

Unable to hire a math teacher this year, Smith is teaching
the subject out of necessity. He says that in keeping with the original mission
to divest itself of mainstream education, CCCS didn’t always have
college-degreed teachers. Now, all teachers have degrees, although they are not
necessarily certified by the state in the subject area they teach. Teachers at
CCCS must “love kids” and “have a Christian world view,” Smith says. “I’ve had
real success in finding teachers outside the education establishment.” Still,
the need to be more acceptable to the outside world has arisen, and CCCS is
seeking accreditation from the Texas Association of Baptist Schools.

Tuition rates for 1994-95: Kindergarten, $2,184; Grades
1-6, $2,373; 7-8, $2,607; 9-12, $2,695. Payable in 9-, 10-, or 12-month
installments. Additional registration fee of $100 and curriculum fee of
$80-$175, depending on child’s grade level. Discount for enrolling additional
children. Finite number of needs-based scholarships available.

Class sizes: Small – one of the main selling points of
the school. The Pre-K has 14 children; the kindergarten class has 18. Average
class size is 15; the limit is 20.

Enrollment requirements: First come, first considered.
Siblings of current students are given priority. Church attendance a must.

Ethnic breakdown: About 75% white; remainder are
Hispanic, African American, and Asian.

Dress: No uniforms, but shirts must be tucked in, pants
must be belted.

Parental involvement: Strongly encouraged. Tuition
breaks are granted to parents who volunteer on campus. Art and music
instruction, for example, are only available when a parent steps in to teach
those subjects.

St. Mary’s Cathedral School

910 San Jacinto, Pre-K-8

“Je-sus Christ is ris’n to-day, Al-le-lu-ia!” sings the St.
Mary’s children’s choir for the Friday morning Mass processional hymn. Father
Sam Hose, a youngish and friendly-looking priest, is the celebrant for this
weekly obligation for St. Mary’s students. This particular day affords a
special teaching opportunity – a family brought their toddler for baptism into
the church. Leading the children through a series of questions about baptism,
Father Sam finally steers them to the point that the sacrament removes original
sin. “But that’s a great mystery, so don’t ask me to explain in a lot of
detail,” he says with a smile.

Because of the baptism ceremony, the Mass runs a little long;
some of the children begin to fidget and shift uncomfortably in the narrow
pews, and a few elbows are jabbed into a few ribs. Afterward, a group of about
eight middle school students will pay the price for that. As the rest of the
student body files out of the church, the eighth grade teacher retains the
hooligans at their seats, scolding them harshly for their misbehavior. On
command, the penitents sink to their knees and are instructed not to rise again
until they are sorry. Another teacher orders a student who passed in front of a
faculty member without saying “excuse me” to immediately return and offer an
apology. The child does so; the other teacher smiles kindly and places his hand
on the student’s shoulder.

Discipline is firmly in hand at St. Mary’s. In return for
such a well-executed system of control, however, an environment safe from
violence is furnished. Alert maintenance people and a 12-foot iron fence help
keep the urban campus secure from intruders. “We don’t have any bad things
happen here,” proclaims principal Helen Kauris, in no-nonsense, Boston-accented
tones. What about the corporal punishment for which Catholic schools are highly
famed? “That went out the window years ago,” she says.

St. Mary’s promotional literature boasts that the school is
the oldest educational institution in continuous operation in Austin – since
1866. Its facilities are clean, but a little old and cramped. Lacking a
playground, children ride tricycles or take phys-ed in the bottom level of the
adjacent Commodore Bank building, which is enclosed by a chain link fence.
There is a cafeteria, but lunches are brought in from an outside source. As in
all Texas Catholic schools, St. Mary’s curriculum follows essential elements
developed by the Texas Education Agency, using state-adopted texts and other
instructional materials. (“Bob Jones? Never heard of it,” says Kauris.)

Besides covering all the usual academic subjects, St. Mary’s
requires Spanish and computer instruction for all students, from
pre-kindergarten to Grade 8. Art classes are at the discretion of the
lower-grade teachers and not available to the upper grades as an elective.
Liturgical music is the main emphasis for that elective, although a UT graduate
student comes in twice a week to offer additional music training.

Out of an eighth-grade graduating class of about 25 students,
seven or eight St. Mary’s children will be accepted to St. Michael’s Academy, a
Catholic prep school, but only two or three will actually attend. Kauris says
that the cost of St. Michael’s – about $5,500 yearly, with no guaranteed
financial aid upon admission – is a major deterrent. Still others have had
quite enough of Catholic school by then, and are looking forward to attending
public high school, where they have more freedom. “But when they get to public
school, sometimes they can’t handle that freedom because they’ve been so
sheltered here,” Kauris says.

Tuition rates for 1995-96: Pre-K, $2,250; Kindergarten,
$2,070; Grades 1-8, $1,755. Payable in monthly installments over nine months.
Additional $135 registration fee. Family discount on tuition for each
additional child. Short-term financial aid available at the discretion of the
school. For most parents, sending their children to St. Mary’s “is a
sacrifice,” says Kauris. “Some parents work two jobs.”

Class sizes: Big. Pre-K has 25 children. The two
kindergarten classes have 18 students, but first and second grades have 29 or
30 children. Pre-K through Grade 2 classrooms have teachers’ aides to ease the
burden. Still, class enrollment remains between 27 and 32 students in the rest
of the grade levels.

Enrollment requirements: First-come, first-considered,
whether Catholic or non-Catholic. Parents must present report cards from the
present and prior year in school, if applicable. The school checks attendance
and conduct records. “We do not have to accept a child with a history of
behavior problems or failing grades,” Kauris says.

Ethnic breakdown: About 65% Hispanic; the remainder are
white, African American, and Asian.

Dress: Catholic school attire – white shirts and navy
pants for boys, white blouses and navy plaid jumpers for girls. Eighth-grade
girls don leather jackets, jeans, and Doc Martens for phys-ed class.

Parental involvement: Strongly encouraged. Parent
Teacher Club is essential to fundraising and therefore, any additional
purchases for and enhancements to the school come through their efforts.

St. Ignatius Martyr Church School

120 W. Oltorf, Pre-K-8

The church connected to this Catholic school is less richly
appointed than St. Mary’s Cathedral, but the campus complex is still the gem of
the neighborhood, which is mainly Hispanic and low-to-middle income. Unlike St.
Mary’s, St. Ignatius has open spaces and lawns on the school and church
grounds, lending a much less hemmed-in feeling – more like a suburban public
school, in other words. The gymnasium serves as an assembly hall for the
all-school prayer gathering each morning, and as the cafeteria during the noon
hour (food service is done in-house). A new playscape was recently purchased
with money generated from one of several fundraisers.

Brother Joseph Ballard is in his first year as principal of
St. Ignatius, having recently transferred to Austin from Waco. Shy and 50-ish,
Brother Joseph says he revamped the school’s discipline policy upon his
arrival: If a student disrupts the class, the teacher writes his name on the
blackboard. If it happens again, the teacher places a checkmark by the
student’s name. If the child is disruptive again, then he goes to see Brother.
Brother doesn’t specify what happens after that, but he eschews corporal
punishment.

In contrast to the firm methods of St. Mary’s, good behavior
is coaxed and bribed out of the children at St. Ignatius. A goody, trinket, or
praise is possible at every turn. Stickers, pencils, ribbons, medals, and pizza
parties are dangled as rewards for polite or helpful behavior, or for academic
achievement, or for reading books. This “accent the positive” ethos, in the
form of extrinsic rewards for outward signs of goodness, is by no means
particular to St. Ignatius – public schools swear by it, too. In fact, St.
Ignatius’ assistant principal, Loretta McClory, says that they adopted their
citizenship rewards program from a AISD elementary school.

Tuition rates for 1995-96 for tithing church members,
and other Catholics, respectively: Pre-K, $1,950 and $2,220; K-8, $1,800 and
$2,300. Non-Catholics pay $2,550. Tuition payable in monthly installments over
nine months. Additional $125 registration fee. Family discount on tuition for
each additional child. Seven or eight children are on tuition assistance.

Class sizes: Big. Pre-K and kindergarten classes have
18 to 20 children. Grades 1 and 2 have 30 children – and the harried expression
on the face of the neophyte second-grade teacher, who appears all of about 23
years old, tells the story about what effect the class size may have on all
concerned. Grades 3 and 4 have 23 children, consistent with public school
classrooms. Seventh grade has 28 students.

Enrollment requirements: Tithing parishioners of St.
Ignatius or San Jose churches receive first consideration. Non-tithing
parishioners or Catholics from other parishes come second. Non-Catholics are
considered last. An entrance exam is required; if the child is too far off from
his grade level, he cannot be accepted. McClory mentions that assessments from
public schools – such as non-graded report cards and portfolios – are often
confusing to the admissions process. “We use very traditional measures,” she
says.

Ethnic breakdown: Percentages not furnished. Mostly
Hispanic. Very few African Americans. Whites comprise the remainder of the
student population.

Dress: White shirts and navy pants for boys, white
blouses and navy skirts or pants for girls.

Parental involvement: 20 hours per school year of
volunteer work required. Bingo night, campus clean-up, office work, and
monitoring the lunch room are only a few of the needs. More than half of the
families are members of the parish.

St. Paul Lutheran School

3501 Red River, Pre-K-8

Established in 1893, St. Paul’s came to its present location
on the campus of St. Paul Lutheran Church in 1953; the school facility was
expanded in 1983. Out of the four schools surveyed for this story, St. Paul’s
is the only one that enjoys financial support from the church for its operating
budget. Consequently, it also offers the best facilities: a large gymnasium, a
large cafeteria/auditorium (with in-house food service), spacious classrooms,
and well kept grounds. Principal David Koenig was not present when I visited,
but the school secretary, Betty Fox, knows everything about the school, and is
a gracious tour guide.

Unfortunately, about half the student body was away on class
trips, which contributed to an artificially quiet atmosphere. Still,
fastidiousness is the order of the day – chairs are pushed in, rucksacks hung
neatly on hooks by each child’s name. Like Catholic schools, St. Paul’s uses
textbooks selected by the state education agency and teaches the essential
elements. Teachers are degreed and certified; most are the product of Lutheran
higher education. A few more electives and extra-curricular activities are
available at this school, too – German and Spanish, band, drama, and crafts. As
there is no Lutheran high school, most students will return to public school
for the ninth grade, but some will be sent to Hyde Park Baptist.

As far as discipline is concerned, Lutheran schools, too,
have their place in the Hall of Shame for using excessive force while executing
corporal punishment, but St. Paul’s does not paddle or spank children. Behavior
is closely monitored, nonetheless, and not doing one’s homework or disrupting
the class are major infractions. “We’re probably a little more strict and can
keep better tabs on the students,” says Fox. Still, St. Paul’s does not want to
be viewed as the solution to a child’s discipline problems, no matter how
desperate a parent may be.

Tuition rates for 1995-96: Good value for the money.
Pre-K, $1,440; Kindergarten, $2,025; Grades 1-4, $2,160; Grades 5-8, $2,250.
Tuition payable in monthly installments over nine months. Additional
registration fee of $160 for Pre-K and K; $210 for Grades 1-8, plus a
per-family charge of $75 for capital improvements. Family discount on tuition
for each additional child. Needs-based tuition assistance provided if families
meet low-income requirements, as determined by the school board. About half are
St. Paul’s church members.

Class sizes: Very good now, but the school board has
decided to raise the class size limit to 28 in the upper grades for the coming
school year. Pre-K has 16; kindergarten has 18; first grade 13. Grades 3 and 6
have 25 students; others are right at 22 – comparable with public schools.

Enrollment requirements: First priority is given to
children of St. Paul members, and sib-lings of children already enrolled.
Applicants must submit their most recent report card, test scores, and a letter
of recommendation.

Ethnic breakdown: Percentages not furnished. Mostly
white, about 75% Lutheran. Few African Americans and Hispanics; one Asian, one
American Indian.

Dress: No uniforms, but dress code specifies no short
shorts or tank tops.

Parental involvement: Requested. Parent representatives
from every class meet monthly.
n Some conclusions about our examples: Many of Money‘s
findings hold true – especially about facilities, teacher training, elective
courses, class sizes, and discipline. There is little doubt that these schools
are more orderly and free from violence. But this could be attributed to the
fact that the student body is smaller and easier to control – and problem
children are not admitted. None of these schools is willing to advance itself
as an intermediary for discipline problems. A popular assumption about private
Christian schools – that they have smaller class sizes than public schools – is
simply not borne out in this informal survey. For example, with the exception
of Christ Community, none of the schools described here offer lower class size
than the Austin school district’s current standard of 22 students per class for
grades K-4, 26 students per class for grades 5-8, and 28 students per class for
grades 9-12.

None of the schools is able to meet special needs – learning
or development disabilities – although one school says it will try to work with
a problem. Libraries are tiny (under 1,000 volumes), and not necessarily
staffed with a full-time librarian. A full calendar of fund-raising events is a
fact of life for private school parents. All schools have waiting lists for the
lower grade levels.

With the exception of the independent school (CCCS),
parochial school teachers make use of the state’s Region XIII Education Center
for staff development. But their training doesn’t come close to the number of
days public school teachers are allowed to have.

Great disparity in the schools’ facilities is also a problem.
One school has sparkling new Macintosh LC II computers; another has computers
that are older than the children using them, because the school hasn’t yet been
able to raise money for new ones.

Finally, the schools’ standardized test scores are
self-reported, and not necessarily compared with public or other private
schools. (Each prefers to use a different test, as well.) School officials all
say their children tested “above average.” When pressed, one principal admitted
that probably not all the children are above average; in fact, a great many of
them are probably below average.

In short, private schools have a special function: selecting
whom they serve. Private schools may indeed be better for some children. But,
so far, there is a dearth of evidence to suggest public policy be made to
support those schools. By the looks of things, the Texas Legislature agrees.
The months ahead will tell whether the Christian Coalition can advance the
cause any further. n

This article appears in May 26 • 1995 and May 26 • 1995 (Cover).