Enrollment in Arlington Catholic Diocese Schools has increased by 25 percent in the past decade, despite the costs of attending these schools rising 5 percent to 7 percent per year to $4,000 per year for elementary students and $8,000 per year for high school students, said Catholic schools Superintendent Timothy McNiff.
During the same period, the diocese has grown 40 percent to approximately 400,000 members, McNiff said. The Arlington Diocese’s 67 parishes cover the northern third of Virginia.
The dramatic growth in Arlington’s parochial school enrollment coincides with falling public school enrollment in many regions of Northern Virginia. Public school enrollment has been declining in the areas where Arlington Catholic schools are concentrated as the price of homes and rentals in the region have continued to rise.
The Arlington diocese has 38 high schools, six elementary schools and an enrollment of 18,500.
McNiff said Catholic schools have seen an influx of students transferring from public schools when they reach the high school level. He said other reasons for the increases in enrollment include more affluent residents willing to pay for a Catholic education but not a more expensive private school education with no religious teaching.
Catholic high schools in the area are operating at maximum capacity, McNiff said, and each year have to turn away several hundred applicants.
To deal with growing demand, the diocese is expected to open two new high schools — one in Prince William County and one in Loudoun County — by 2008.
