RE: Difficulties Private Schools are finding in the 21st Century
Non-elite, small privates are really struggling. Lots of reasons for this.
Non-traditional options have become available. The increase in online universities or brick and mortar universities offering online degrees is staggering. Back in the day, many of these people would be going to night school at their local universities.
The cost of college has skyrocketed over the past 50 years, especially at private schools. So, unless you are going to one of the top schools, does it really make a lot of sense to pay up to $85,000 a year for a private school.
The number of kids going to college has dropped. So, there are less kids available to these small private schools.
More widespread information is also allowing kids to make more informed decisions. Kids now know the earning potential of degrees. Do you want to go a couple of hundred thousand of dollars in debt to be a teacher, with no hope of paying the loans off in the next 30 years?
I also think the world is smaller and kids are willing to travel to find a school that meets their needs, instead of going to the home town school. My daughter goes to a relatively small, private school in Wisconsin. I would say the families are middle to upper-middle class. She has classmates going to Malibu, Dublin, Cardiff, Maine, New York, Alabama, Utah, Arizona, and all places in-between. Forty years ago, how many kids from Wisconsin would go to college in Alabama? Now, her school sends at least one kid every year.
Also, I would link our sports culture has led to the increase in name recognition of major public schools in the past decades. Schools like Oregon were an afterthought 40 years ago, unless you were from the pacific northwest. Now, with their Nike branding, I think it leads kids to investigate the school more so than in the past.
Public schools started recruiting students heavily. When I was in high school, I don't remember ever receiving info from the public universities near me. Now, my kids get swamped with recruiting materials.
Finally, the academic reputations of the state schools have skyrocketed. Look at the US News top rankings, the publics have rise in the rankings have been dramatic over the past 40 years.
Unless the small private school has a unique niche or it is has a fantastic academic reputation, I have hard time thinking the school will survive. I also believe the effects will be felt in larger private schools too. Unless they are academically elite, I think more and more privates are going to struggle.
(This post was last modified: 05-16-2022 10:30 AM by MU88.)
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