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FACTS ON POLICY: Private Schools, K–12
September 16, 2008
Since the turn of the century, private school enrollment has held steady at 11 percent in elementary and secondary schools.
At the start of the 2006–7 academic year, 55.5 million students were enrolled in elementary or secondary schools. Of those, 6.2 million—roughly 11 percent of the total student population—were enrolled in private schools.
Although the total enrollment of elementary and secondary schools has more than doubled between 1949 and 2006, the ratio of public to private school students has not changed much during the past sixty years; It has remained at roughly 9:1, with slight fluctuations.
Private school trends
•The percentage of elementary and secondary school students enrolled in private schools peaked in 1969 at 14 percent. In the 1919–20 academic year, this percentage was at its lowest level since the 1890s—7 percent.
•The percentage of private school enrollment also hit a relative peak in the mid-1980s of 13 percent.
Academic year data for 2005–6
•23 percent of elementary and secondary schools—a total of 28,996 schools—are private.
•Close to one-third of private schools enroll fewer than 50 students; three-fifth have fewer than 150 students enrolled.
•Three-quarters (76 percent) of private schools have a religious affiliation, the most common of which is Catholic: 26 percent of private schools are Catholic schools.
•Catholic schools are also the most popular (common) private school: 44 percent of private school students are enrolled in Catholic schools.
•The South has the most private schools; roughly one-third of all private (elementary and secondary) schools are located in the south.
•Two-thirds of all private schools are located in urban or suburban areas.
Figure 1
K–12 Private school enrollment, 1919-2006, in percent
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