Long-Term Trends in Private School Enrollments by Family Income - AERA Open January-March 2018 Vol. 4 No. 1

Oct 15, 2026

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Using multiple national surveys, this article traces long-run changes in private elementary school enrollment from 1968 to 2013, focusing on how family income shapes participation. The study shows a substantial decline in private enrollment for middle-income families over five decades, while high-income enrollment remains relatively stable. It also documents differences by race/ethnicity, urbanicity, and U.S. region, noting that income explains much of racial/ethnic variation but not the scale of urban and regional gaps.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages24

Reading Time1 h 0 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Background and Context

Family Income Inequality and Public School Segregation

Rising Economic Segregation Between Public and Private Schools

AERA Open January-March 2018, Vol. 4, No. 1, pp. 1–24 DOI: 10. 1177/2332858417751355 © The Author(s) 2018. [http://journals.sagepub.com/home/ero](http://journals.sagepub.com/home/ero) Long-Term Trends in Private School Enrollments by Family Income Richard J. Murnane Harvard University Sean F. Reardon Stanford University We use data from multiple national surveys to describe trends in private elementary school enrollment by family income from 1968 to 2013. We find several important trends. First, the private school enrollment rate of middle-income families declined substantially over the past five decades while that of high-income families remained quite stable. Second, there are notable differences in private school enrollment trends by race/ethnicity, urbanicity, and region of the country. Although racial/ethnic differences in private school enrollment are to a large extent explained by income differences, the urban/suburban and regional differences in private school enrollment patterns are large even among families with similar incomes. Factors contributing to these patterns may include trends in income inequality, private school costs and availability, and the perceived relative quality of local schooling options. Keywords: educational inequality, income inequality, private schools Introduction Family income inequality in the United States has risen sharply in the past few decades (Stone, Trisi, Sherman, & Horton, 2016) . One of the consequences of this has been rising residential segregation—affluent families, especially those with school-aged children, increasingly live in different communities than lower-income families (Owens, 2016; Reardon & Bischoff, 2011) . Since most children attend a public school close to their home, this has resulted in increased segregation of public schools by income (Owens, Reardon, & Jencks, 2016) . This in turn contributes to inequality in educational outcomes through at least three mechanisms: peer effects, student mobility effects, and teacher quality effects (Duncan & Murnane, 2014) . Rising inequality may also have led to increasing economic segregation between public and private schools. There is, however, surprisingly little information about whether this has happened. This paper seeks to close this knowledge gap by describing trends over the past several decades in private school enrollment rates by children from high-, median-, and low-income families. Background and Context Parents send their children to private elementary schools for many reasons. In 2007, 31% reported that they did so to obtain a better academic program than that offered by available public schools. Thirty-six percent reported that they wanted their child’s school to provide instruction in a particular religion or value system. Eight percent reported that they wanted a small school, and 4% reported that they wanted a safer environment or better discipline than available public schools provided.1 The effects of growing income inequality on patterns of private school enrollment are unclear. As families have become more aware of the remarkably high recent labor market payoffs to educational attainments and as private school tuitions have risen, private schooling may be one more way that high-income families seek to give their children an advantage in preparing for postsecondary education. With increasing wealth and income, relatively affluent families are increasingly able to afford the high tuitions that most nonsectarian and some religious private schools charge. They may also increasingly want to substitute payment of private school tuitions for the time they would otherwise spend in monitoring their child’s experiences in public schools. On the other hand, increasing residential and school segregation by income may obviate the need to seek educational advantage through private schooling. In many states, the size of the local per student property tax base is a strong predictor of

FAQs

What data and time span does the study use to analyze private school enrollment?

It uses data from multiple national surveys and examines trends from 1968 to 2013.

How do private school enrollment rates change for middle- vs. high-income families?

Private enrollment for middle-income families declines substantially over the past five decades, while enrollment for high-income families stays quite stable.

What factors does the article suggest may contribute to differences in enrollment patterns?

Potential factors include trends in income inequality, private school costs and availability, and perceived relative quality of local public school options.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Cipher