A decline in the number of Catholic schools in the United States during the past five years reflects a demographic shift of where Catholics live more than a decline in the demand for Catholic education, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate in Washington.

In a report released May 23, CARA researchers linked the closure of 339 Catholic schools in the last five years to the dynamic that "Catholic people move, schools don't."

The National Catholic Educational Association commissioned CARA, an independent Catholic research agency based at Georgetown University, to research the status of U.S. Catholic elementary schools and look at both the long- and short-term trends that have brought about school closures. The results are outlined in "Primary Trends, Challenges and Outlook: A Special Report on U.S. Catholic Elementary Schools, 2000-2005."

The report shows that many of the Catholic schools that have closed recently were located in the mid-Atlantic region, where the number of Catholics has dropped in recent decades, and in the Rust Belt, a region stretching from Chicago to New York City, where population declines have occurred in almost all demographic segments as factories have closed and steel and automobile production has decreased.

At the same time, communities in the South and West and in New England have experienced increasing demands for Catholic education, with new elementary schools opening and others keeping applicants on waiting lists.

The CARA researchers used NCEA databases and surveys of 269 Catholic pastors, 510 Catholic school principals, 143 diocesan superintendents of education, and a national random sample of 1,419 Catholic parents.

The report also studied other aspects of Catholic elementary schools and found that about 23 percent of Catholic parents with children who are elementary school age have enrolled them in a Catholic elementary school in the last five years. Parental satisfaction with their children's education and experience at these schools remains high.

Tuition cost is an important factor in Catholic parents deciding not to enroll their children in a Catholic elementary school. Many schools, particularly those in inner cities, are facing mounting operational costs, which put an upward pressure on the tuitions that the schools charge to their students, the report said. Catholic elementary schools in areas with vouchers or scholarship programs that assist parents in paying tuition have higher enrollments.

According to the report, other factors affecting school enrollment include the weakening of attachments to parish life, hurricanes and other national disasters, layoffs in local industries and shifts in housing markets. On the national level, schools also were affected by the country's economic recession in 2001-03.

School leaders cited the overall operation of the school as their biggest challenge, especially the costs of health care and employee benefits and the costs to maintain facilities.

The clergy sex abuse crisis was listed by 15 percent of Catholic parents surveyed as a minor factor in their deciding against Catholic schools.

The report described the future for Catholic elementary schools as "cautiously optimistic." It highlighted the need for schools to seek out new funding sources and urged them to turn to the "largely untapped source" of alumni who might be willing to help financially troubled schools provide the same level of Catholic education they themselves received.

"The responsibility to ensure Catholic parents continue to have the option of sending their child to a Catholic elementary school rests with many, including school leaders, teachers and staff, parishes (and) dioceses," the report concluded.