A new Catholic high school launched this fall just inside the Washington beltway. St. Jerome Institute opened its doors on Sept. 1 with 21 ninth and 10th graders from 20 families who had the vision and courage to try something new. This begs the question: With dozens of well-regarded public and private high schools in the Washington area and Fairfax County specifically, was there really a need for another one? As one of the founding parents, I can answer with a resounding “Yes.”
There is undoubtedly a strong case for parents to choose public school for their children’s education, as my own did back in the 1980s. Over 80% of families send their children to their local public high school because it is free, convenient, and its academics and athletics are often on par with, or in some cases better than, local private high schools that are not free and often much farther away.
