Why be cheap labour for rich suburban families? Because those suburban families trusted the nuns more than the lay teachers who were more likely to think of themselves as employees. Even the public schools used to look for “dedicated” teachers —like Miss Dove the movie character—rather than those who looked upon teaching as just as a job.
In the old days, I’d trust nuns.
But when my boys were in school in the 1980’s I was happy we had dedicated lay teachers, not PC nuns who tried to teach my (adopted Colombian) son Liberation theology, which angered him because the nun knew nothing about South America except what she read in the liberal propaganda.
I hope the new orders are there now, because the PC nuns destroyed the older orders (I have several friends who left because the orders were destroyed by them, and they could follow Christ better on the outside than under these twits).