Public, private and charter schools compete for your child

Now more than ever, parents have more of a say where their child attends school. With so many options, that means more schools are struggling to keep enrollment numbers stable.

“Enrollment is tough, because as a charter school, we have to actively recruit all of our students and if we aren’t actively recruiting,we have no one here. We started with 80 students,” Omar Yanar, CEO of the El Paso Leadership Academy said.

Yanar tells ABC-7 80 students have grown to 250 in three short years at the El Paso Leadership Academy. He says recruiting can be difficult, but smaller class sizes are what draws families who are looking for something different.

“The middle school is never going to be more than 340 students. So when you have a middle school of 1,500 kids, it’s very easy to fall through the cracks,” Yanar said.

The school will graduate its first class of 8th graders in May. Counselors are now helping them choose their high school, which will likely be in the public school system.

Districts like Ysleta welcome these students with open arms.

“It is a challenge, we’re in competition. We tell our principals everyday, that we’re competing for students,” Associate Superintendent of Operations Pat O’Neil said.

O’Neil says enrollment has been on a slow decline for the last ten years.

“The numbers have gone down, but that was projected, but we knew they were going down, so we planned accordingly. In 10 years, we’ll level off at 40,000,” O’Neil said.

O’Neil says numbers have decreased because YISD is a landlocked school district. Which means neighborhoods are developed and children have graduated but parents still live there. O’Neil says that makes it hard for numbers to climb.

Fewer students means fewer dollars from the state. The Ysleta district is now capitalizing on programs like their early college high schools and focusing on attendance.

“You get so much money per student, but it’s also how often are they coming to school. So you could have 40,000 students, but only there 80% of the time, you’re going to get reduced funding as opposed to if they’re there 96% of the time, then you get that additional funding,” O’Neil said.

Meanwhile at parochial schools in El Paso, enrollment is also on a decline.

“It’s been going down over the past four years,” Sister Elizabeth Swartz with the Catholic Schools of El Paso said.

Swartz says 600 students cross the border daily from Juarez to El Paso for school. She tells ABC-7 the devalued peso has meant fewer students in the classroom.

“If the tuition is say $4000 dollars and you’re talking about pesos. The $4000 is still staying there, the peso is rising so it’s going to take more pesos to meet that obligation,” Swartz said.

While financial assistance is available, it doesn’t cover the entire tuition of $4300 dollars.

“The economy is growing but its not grown to the point where people have the disposable income,” Swartz said.

Swartz argues the advantages of a parochial education far outweigh the costs. She says students aren’t bound to standardized tests, and curriculum can be more rigorous. Almost 100% of students graduate and attend college.

Swartz says while expansion isn’t an option at this point, neither is consolidating or shutting down schools.

“If the current schools didn’t exist in these areas, where would the people go? We need to have those schools we just need to strengthen them and do a better job of marketing where they are to fill those schools,” Swartz said.