Across the nation, the inner-city Catholic school is fast becoming a relic of the past. Will we throw these much-loved schools a lifeline? Such is the question posed by a new Thomas B. Fordham Institute report, Who Will Save America’s Urban Catholic Schools?, released to coincide with Pope Benedict’s visit to the U.S. this week.
According to the Fordham report, more than 1,300 Catholic schools have closed their doors since 1990, most of them urban schools. This figure may be even higher: data from the National Catholic Educational Association show that 1,267 schools have closed just since 2000, with elementary schools in 12 urban areas hit the hardest.
Urban Catholic schools have shut down primarily for economic reasons, says the Fordham report. Fewer nuns, priests, and brothers are working in Catholic schools, requiring these institutions to hire more lay people for teaching and administrative posts. Resulting tuition hikes have led to the departures of many poor, urban parents. Faced with high costs and sagging enrollments, schools cannot stay open.
The dwindling number of inner-city Catholic schools has widespread ramifications. Since 1990, 300,000 students have been displaced by school closures – “double the number affected by Hurricanes Rita and Katrina,” notes the Fordham Institute. In practical terms, this adds up to a $20 billion price tag for taxpayers, as students have moved into other schools, many of them public.
But cost isn’t even the paramount issue for children left out in the cold. As a recent Washington Post editorial noted, “The more critical issue is that vast numbers of these children – mainly poor and minority – have been forced into troubled public schools.” This, says Fordham Vice President Michael Petrilli, is a “tragedy.”
In spite of steep financial hurdles, some urban Catholic schools are still transforming impoverished communities. The Jubilee Catholic Schools in Memphis, Tennessee, profiled in the Fordham report, have taken back abandoned facilities and playgrounds once co-opted by prostitutes, gangs, and drug dealers with the help of an anonymous $10 million gift – the “Memphis Miracle.” These schools, according to the Jubilee brochure, “not only educate the children, but also clothe them, wash their uniforms, and provide nutritious meals for breakfast and lunch. For many of the children, these are the only meals of the day.” Private donations help pay tuition for students, but the need is still great. A scholarship organization provided students with “about 150 scholarships to pay for tuition at private schools their first year – and nearly 9,000 applications poured in the following year,” notes the Fordham report.
In North Carolina, Catholic schools educate thousands. Twenty-four schools serve some 8,000 students in the Diocese of Raleigh. In the Catholic Diocese of Charlotte, 18 schools educate more than 7,000 students. But for poor families unable to manage tuition, help is often limited. The privately funded Children’s Scholarship Fund – Charlotte provides 400 students each year with tuition assistance at private or parochial schools, but many other children still lack options.
What can we do? Religious and political leaders will surely weigh in. Later today, Pope Benedict XVI will speak to Catholic educators from across the country at the Catholic University of America. Next week, the White House will convene a summit on inner-city children and faith-based schools.
Clearly, though, the fact that so many low-income, inner-city parents desire – but cannot afford – a religious education for their children affirms the need for widespread school choice. Lots of families are indeed well-served by public schools and do not want or need private or parochial schools. But countless others are consigned – by poverty – to attend failing public schools. This is unjust. Parental choice measures like education tax credits and tuition scholarships would help rectify this injustice.
For decades, Catholic schools have thrown a lifeline to scores of poor, urban children – Catholic and non-Catholic alike. Now, these schools are sending out an SOS. Will we respond?