Very few Catholic families walk away from Catholic education because they no longer care about the faith.
Most walk away because they cannot afford to stay.
Tuition increases are often explained as unavoidable, rising costs, staffing needs, aging buildings. And at an institutional level, those explanations are true. But for families on the ground, the experience is far simpler and far more painful.
They are priced out.
What makes this crisis particularly dangerous is how quietly it happens. There are no protests. No dramatic exits. Families simply stop enrolling. Children move into public schools. Faith formation becomes irregular, improvised, or postponed altogether.
And over time, absence becomes normal.
This is not a story of neglect. It is a story of pressure.
Parents still want Catholic formation for their children. Converts still seek instruction. Adults still want to understand their faith more deeply. But when access requires thousands of dollars per year, participation becomes conditional.
And conditional access inevitably reshapes who receives formation, and who does not.
The Church has always taught that education is central to the life of faith. But when education becomes dependent on disposable income, the mission narrows. The poor, the working class, rural families, immigrants, and those in unstable circumstances are the first to be excluded.
Not because they lack faith.
But because they lack margin.
Over time, this silent exclusion creates a distorted picture of Catholic life—one where formation appears optional, uneven, or secondary. Not because the Church teaches that, but because access has quietly eroded.
If Catholic education is essential to the life of the Church, then access to it cannot be treated as an afterthought.
Because the most dangerous barriers are not the ones people argue about—but the ones they slowly learn to accept.
