The Declining Enrollment Problems: A Study of Why Parents Withdraw Their Children from the Public Schools

Between 1974 and 1979, nonpublic school enrollment in Maryland's Montgomery County rose 10 percent, while enrollment in the public school system decreased by 17 percent. A study undertaken to determine the reasons for this trend revealed that 53 percent of the parents who transferred their children from public to private schools did so because of concern for discipline, 44 percent sought better instruction in religion and values, 38 percent were dissatisfied with class size and individual attention given to students, 32 percent criticized student interest and achievement in public schools, 28.6 percent disapproved of the curriculum, and 3 percent sought to avoid racial integration. The data were obtained by a random telephone survey that sampled the attitudes of parents of 313 of the 1927 students who transferred from public schools to private schools. The survey questionnaire included both open-ended and multiple-choice items. (PGD)