Study: Vouchers kept Milwaukee Catholic parishes open, but at a cost to religious activity

The expansion of private-school vouchers in Milwaukee prevented Catholic parishes from closing and merging, but also led to a significant decline in participating churches' donations and religious activity, a new study says.

The study suggests the Milwaukee voucher program since 1999 led to a decline in non-school Catholic church revenue by $60 million, at least amid the more than 70 Milwaukee Archdiocese parishes studied by the authors. The findings raise new questions about the impact that expanding private-school voucher programs could have on religious life in America, at a time when voucher programs are expanding and the number of people claiming religious affiliation is declining.

"It's a complicated story, because vouchers are good in terms of keeping parishes open, but they seem to be changing what happens within the parishes," said Daniel Hungerman, an associate professor of economics at the University of Notre Dame who led the study released Monday. The National Bureau of Economic Research is circulating it as a working paper.

"We thought that if you eased the budget at the school, maybe there'd be a ripple effect," Hungerman said in an interview. "But we didn't find that. Even as the financial burden on the school is eased, we don't see that turning into higher salaries for the parish staff outside the school, or buying the new (church) organ."

The study concludes that vouchers are the dominant source of funding for many parishes and greatly reduced the likelihood of them closing or merging. But the Milwaukee Archdiocese, which allowed the researchers to access parish finances for the study, questioned that finding.

"I'm not sure the cause and effect is this clear," said Jerry Topczewski, chief of staff for Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki.

About 6,500 Catholic elementary and secondary schools educate about 40% of all private-school students in the country, according to the study. The difference in Milwaukee is that a great share of Catholic schools accept vouchers or taxpayer-funded tuition subsidies that help qualifying students attend private schools. A greater number of Catholic schools statewide are starting to do so as well, thanks to recent GOP-led legislation that expanded the voucher program outside of Milwaukee.

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Milwaukee hosts the longest-running urban school voucher program of its kind in the country. Today it enrolls more than 28,000 children in more than 120 private schools, the majority of which are parochial. In the newer statewide voucher program, more than 3,000 children are attending about 135 private schools across Wisconsin.

Voucher programs have expanded rapidly across the country since Republicans won more statehouse seats in the 2008 and 2010 elections. After the 2016 elections, Republicans now have top-to-bottom government control in 25 states, which could mean that school-choice programs are poised to expand further.

Recently confirmed U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is a strong proponent of school choice, which could bring even more national attention to the issue of public funding for private schools and religious education.

Authors studied 71 parishes

Hungerman had access to the budgets of 71 out of about 200 Archdiocese parishes that agreed to share their financial data, including 13 that were likely to be affected by legislation that expanded the voucher program in 2006 and 2011.

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Hungerman worked with Kevin Rinz, a doctoral student, and Jay Frymark, the business manager at St. Joseph Parish in Grafton. Frymark was working for the Archdiocese when Hungerman and Rinz started their research, and he compiled the data from participating parishes.

The researchers found no evidence that vouchers subsidized parish religious activity beyond the operation of the affiliated schools. In fact, their estimates suggest the opposite: Vouchers caused a significant decrease in spending on non-school religious purposes such as religious staff salaries, mission support and church maintenance.

They also found:

• The average voucher program diminished non-school expenditures in a parish by $177,000, or 15 cents on the dollar. Non-school revenue fell by a greater margin: almost $313,000, or 26 cents on the dollar. 
• Both non-voucher schools and voucher schools lose money for their parishes (though voucher schools lose a little less), but non-voucher programs make up for the lack of voucher money with more donations.
• The typical parish accepting vouchers received more money through that avenue than from offertory donations.

Hungerman said he can't fully explain the reasons behind the numbers.

Maybe, he surmised, parishes that begin to accept vouchers experience leadership change and new priorities. Maybe vouchers caused parishioners to change churches. Maybe parishioners, knowing that their parish has a public funding stream, are less likely to donate, or perhaps they don't want to donate to help voucher students who may not already be a part of the parish community.

Topczewski, from the archbishop's office, said declining church revenue caused by fewer Catholics per capita does not necessarily mean declining parish and religious activity.

"Instead, the parish mission shifts to an evangelical mission in a neighborhood that is no longer predominantly Catholic, but whose families still seek out the quality and reputation of a Catholic school," he said. "The survey misses that schools are a ministry for us."

Frymark, the business manager at St. Joseph Parish, isn't sold on the idea that vouchers cause a decline in religious activity. You can only tell so much about a parish's religious activity by its spending on church-related items, he said.

He'll soon know for sure. St. Joseph Parish School will accept students on vouchers for the first time this fall.

Contact Erin Richards at erin.richards@jrn.com or (414) 426-9838 or @emrichards on Twitter.

 KEY POINTS

• The average voucher program diminished non-school expenditures in a parish by 15 cents on the dollar. 
• Non-school revenue fell by a greater margin: almost 26 cents on the dollar.
• Non-voucher schools and voucher schools lose money for their parishes, but non-voucher programs make up for the lack of voucher money with more donations.
• The typical parish accepting vouchers received more money through that avenue than from offertory donations.
• The researchers found no evidence that vouchers subsidized parish religious activity beyond the operation of the affiliated schools.