Across America, Catholic schools are closing. But in San Antonio, Fla., where cows meet cul-de-sacs on the fringe of greater Tampa, St. Anthony Catholic School is getting new classrooms.

Just a few years ago, there was serious talk of closing St. Anthony Catholic School in San Antonio, Fla. But after recent enrollment gains, the school is planning to replace aging portables with a new building. (Photo courtesy of St. Anthony)

The 129-year-old, K-8 school has rebounded since it hit a Great Recession low of 153 students in 2010. It’s up to 196 students this year and aiming for 270 within a few. The comeback has quashed talk of closing, said the principal, Sister Alice Ottapurackal, and instead prompted the diocese to schedule a new building to replace aging portables.

“All this is going to be gone,” said Sister Alice, gesturing to a clutch of boxy buildings behind the stately red brick of the main school house. “It’s an amazing feeling,” she said of the rising numbers. “It’s good to see people are still interested in Catholic education.”

St. Anthony represents a fresh, Florida twist to the oft-told story of Catholic school decline. Choice and competition are part of the Sunshine State’s potentially more optimistic plot line.

Catholic school enrollment nationwide fell another 1.5 percent this year to 2,001,740, according to a report released March 22 by the National Catholic Educational Association. But in Florida, enrollment ticked up for the first time in five years – by 1 percent in K-12 and 2.7 percent counting pre-school, according to the Florida Catholic Conference.

Florida’s 217 elementary and secondary Catholic schools now enroll 82,489 students, up from 81,632 last year. The jump is even more impressive given competition from Florida’s booming charter schools, which added 48,000 students in the past two years alone.

The most visible reason for growth: Florida’s tax credit scholarship program for low-income students. The number of scholarship students in Catholic schools rose this year from 6,538 to 8,575, a 31 percent increase, according to data from Step Up For Students, which administers the program and co-hosts this blog. In some urban counties, the trend lines are even steeper. Over the last three years, the numbers in Hillsborough, which includes Tampa, leapfrogged from 167 to 431, with annual increases of 41 percent, 25 percent and 47 percent, respectively. (more…)

Catholic schools used to be neighborhood schools. Many of them served immigrant familes. But since 2000 alone, more than 1,700 have closed in the United States, leaving voids in communities and diminishing school choice options for families who could use them now more than ever. In an effort to change that, the University of Notre Dame is leading a partnership that aims to improve the quality of Catholic schools, particularly for low-income, Hispanic families.

The university's ACE Academies program began two years ago in Tucson, Arizona and is now rolling out at two schools in Tampa Bay (St. Joseph in Tampa and Sacred Heart in Pinellas Park). In this redefinED podcast, program director Christian Dallavis notes two important statistics: 1) two thirds of practicing Catholics in the U.S. who are under the age of 35 are Hispanic, and 2) only about 50 percent of Hispanic students graduate from high school in four years.

"We see the future of the church is on pace to be kind of radically undereducated," Dallavis said. But "we also have a solution in that we know Catholic schools often put kids on a path to college in ways that they don't have other opportunities to do so."

It's no coincidence the program came to Arizona and Florida. Both states have large Hispanic populations. Both offer tax credit scholarships to low income students.

"They provide a mechanism that allows Catholic schools and other faith-based schools to sustain their legacy of providing extraordinary educational opportunities to low-income families, immgrant communities, minority children, the people on the margins," Dallavis said. "We see the tax credit as really providing the opportunity to allow the schools to thrive going into the future."

But make no mistake. This effort isn't about quantity. The Notre Dame folks know in this day and age, school quality, whether public or private, is essential - and they're looking to beef up everything from curriculum to leadership to professional development. Their goal for the kids: College and Heaven. Enjoy the podcast.