Private high schools across Wisconsin are seeing an increase in students needing financial help. While private school enrollment is holding steady, schools are struggling to meet the needs of students. WUWM’s LaToya Dennis has more on this story.
It’s 6:30 on a Wednesday morning when I arrive at Natalie Moore’s house in Milwaukee. While it’s early for me, she’s been up for nearly an hour getting ready for school. Natalie is a sophomore at St. Joan Antida in Milwaukee. It’s an all girl’s high school.
"It’s a good school,” Natalie says.
ME: What makes it a good school?
“Just meeting like different people. Like there’s Muslims and Mexicans there and like, just all of us in one environment and stuff is real cool,” Natalie says.
Natalie is dressed in her school uniform—a white shirt with the letters SJA emblazoned on it, black pants and black shoes. She wears her hair in braids. It’s clear Natalie enjoys school because she lights up when she talks about St. Joan. Antida.
ME: How are your grades?
“UMM, A’s and B’s,” Natalie says.
ME: Favorite subject?
“Umm, geometry,” Natalie says.
ME: Really? You’re a math girl?
Natalie thinks she’s getting a good education, but she has no idea at what cost.
“I got a scholarship to go there, so it was all good,” Natalie says.
ME: Do you know exactly how much it costs?
“Maybe around like $100,000 or something like that. I mean, I’m just guessing. But something like that,” Natalie says.
ME: That’s beyond college. That’s like, 10 years of college.
Natalie’s mom Joy can’t help but laugh with us. But she’s glad Natalie isn’t worried about the cost, which is $10,500 a year. Joy says that’s a job for parents. The single mother of three starts tearing up just thinking about how much of an obstacle the money is.
“I was willing to make the sacrifice to get her there though. I was willing to try to do what I could to…They have a schedule you can pay like monthly so I was going to try to do that until I got laid-off. That really through a curve in things,” Joy says.
Joy lost her job just before Natalie’s freshman year and she immediately called St. Joan Antida.
“They refused to let my daughter not go because of financial reasons,” Joy says.
The school came through with additional financial aid. Joy says she has nothing against public schools, in fact, her oldest son graduated from a public school in Milwaukee and her youngest son currently attends one. She says they just aren’t right for Natalie. St. Joan is.
“Their environment is not competitive. The school facility is more of a smaller group type facility which she needs,” Joy says.
Joy says she’s amazed at the young woman Natalie is becoming with the help of St. Joan. Cindy Marino is president of the school. She says the goal here is to not turn anyone away because of money. But she says that’s become more difficult in this economy. St. Joan Antida is a voucher school, so the majority of kids who go here do get money from the state. But Marino says it isn’t enough.
“The funding for choice covers about 60 percent of what our actual cost to educate every student would be. So we already have the burden of filling that gap. Add to that things like updating facilities, trying to keep up with the changes in technology,” Marino says.
Marino says to save money the school did lay off one staff person, and there’s the possibility of more cutbacks. St. Joan is seeing reduced donations from individual donors and foundations, at the same time students are seeking more financial aid. Problems Matt Kussow says private schools across the state are dealing with. But he says it’s not affecting enrollment.
“We saw a slight jump in 2006-2007 and a slight dip in 07-08, but in 08-09 it came right back up,” Kussow says.
Kussow is executive director of the Wisconsin Council of Religious and Independent Schools. It represents around 800 of the 900 or so private K-12 institutions in Wisconsin.
“I think it shows that when parents are making their priority list, that their child’s education ranks right at the top,” Kussow says.
Kussow says many of the state’s private schools have fallen on hard times before and survived. He says he hasn’t heard of any schools thinking about closing their doors simply because of finances. While schools aren’t necessarily in danger of closing, less money could mean larger class sizes and fewer extracurricular activities for students.
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