Can Catholic elementary schools survive?

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“****A wave of school closings
****For inner-city Catholic elementary schools, the problem has reached a crisis level. In New York, 22 Catholic schools will close in Brooklyn, and 20 more are slated for closure elsewhere in the state. Eight schools are closing in St. Louis; 21 will shut their doors over the next two years in Detroit. It’s a pattern repeated across much of the Northeast and Midwest.”

We shanty Irish and poor Italian immigrants have climbed out of the slums, and pulled the ladder up behind us.

The most effective thing we can do for “social justice” is maintain Catholic schools in the poorest inner cities. And we are failing to do that.

What hypocrites we are!
 
vern,

Catholic public schools are flourishing in areas where there are Catholics…we have been through this before.
 
OHHH I like the idea of parents getting together and forming their own catholic school in the article. In a way, us home educators do that every time we form co-ops or activites together for our groups. I have to agree with the article about smaller families and a lack of clergy to teach and run these schools too. This is why so many are turning to home schooling these days. It’s not just about giving good academics or a lack money for us either, it’s about giving a true and full Catholic education to our children – and for far too many home is the only place this is going to happen these days.
 
They can survive and flourish if we work and pray together and support them as the gift they are. And we have pastors who are willing to support them too.They also can survive if our legislators give vouchers a chance. If they give a Catholic school student, 1/2 the amount of what it will cost them to educate them in a public school, the Catholic school will survive. Otherwise, even public schools will suffer from overcrowding and lack of funds. They don’t have enough money now. Where are they going to find money to educate the kids if all the Catholic schools close.
 
I do not believe they will survive if they are not parish and diocese funded. Secondly, they have to return to Orthodox teaching. Parents have to see value from the Catholic school. If they are only sending them there for discipline or to avoid a bad public school they will further decline as the gap between tuition costs and the “free” public school increases. Those that survive will consolidate and be schools for the financially able and elite. In my view this goes against the grain for the Catholic School mission.

A new vision of Catholic Schools and their relation to the Parish must be formed.
 
I am strongly against vouchers…if Catholic schools receive money from the feds, then the feds will be able to tell those schools what they can teach.

What we need is a strong “life” campaign teaching Catholic parents that they need to have bunches of kids, to raise them as faithful Catholics and to strongly encourage vocations. The bottom line truth is the Catholic schools ae not free, it takes a lot of money to pay those lay salavried teachers and if we had more Priests and Nuns, then the salaries would be greatly reduced and many more schools would stay open and flourish.
 
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buffalo:
I do not believe they will survive if they are not parish and diocese funded. Secondly, they have to return to Orthodox teaching. Parents have to see value from the Catholic school. If they are only sending them there for discipline or to avoid a bad public school they will further decline as the gap between tuition costs and the “free” public school increases. Those that survive will consolidate and be schools for the financially able and elite. In my view this goes against the grain for the Catholic School mission.

A new vision of Catholic Schools and their relation to the Parish must be formed.
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We must have a vision of Catholic schools which includes a mission to the poorest sections of the country, to give poor children the quality education that the state has failed to give them.

Our vision must include support for the schools, not just by the parents, or by the parish, but by the Church as a whole.
 
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TPJCatholic:
vern,

Catholic public schools are flourishing in areas where there are Catholics…we have been through this before.
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And “we” have pretended we have no mission to help the poorest children.

What hypocrites we are!
 
vern humphrey:
Our vision must include support for the schools, not just by the parents, or by the parish, but by the Church as a whole.
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Indeed. There are too many examples of schools that have been closed, the parish and parents’ wishes notwithstanding. Often, there’s just so much that parents alone or a parish alone can afford.
 
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Richardols:
Indeed. There are too many examples of schools that have been closed, the parish and parents’ wishes notwithstanding. Often, there’s just so much that parents alone or a parish alone can afford.
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Which is why the Church as a whole must accept this as a mission – ultimately the only effective way to help the poor is to provide the children with a first-class education.
 
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Richardols:
Indeed. There are too many examples of schools that have been closed, the parish and parents’ wishes notwithstanding. Often, there’s just so much that parents alone or a parish alone can afford.
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I don’t think so. A Catholic school of say 250 children has an operating budget of about $500,000. Iif a typical parish has about 500 envelopes being used $19.23 will cover the whole school. Add to that the parish budget of $250,000 requires another $9.61.
So if each envelope contained $30.00 it would cover the total parish and school budget and there would be no tuition.

If 1,000 envelopes are used then only 14.42 is required, 1500 only 9.61 is required. Our parish sends out about 1500 envelopes and only 600 are used.

To me it’s not an issue of affordability but an issue of will. If we tithed at 10% like the Protestants there would be no issue at all.
 
vern,

We do not pretend we have no mission to help the poor–the Church has the largest and most productive outreach programs for the poor in the entire world. Our mission to the poor is to feed them and clothe them…Jesus never once told us to pay for their Catholic education.
 
vern,

We do not pretend we have no mission to help the poor–the Church has the largest and most productive outreach programs for the poor in the entire world. Our mission to the poor is to feed them and clothe them…Jesus never once told us to pay for their Catholic education.
 
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buffalo:
To me it’s not an issue of affordability but an issue of will. If we tithed at 10% like the Protestants there would be no issue at all.
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Exactly so.
 
buffalo,

Those schools are not closing because the Bishops love to take schools away…they are not closing because people do not tithe…they are closing because there are not enough Catholics in the area around those schools. The simple truth is, over the last 30 years there has been an incredible migration of Catholics to the suburbs…the Catholic schools followed them. It makes sense that we would see catholic schools in the areas where there are Catholics.
 
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TPJCatholic:
buffalo,

Those schools are not closing because the Bishops love to take schools away…they are not closing because people do not tithe…they are closing because there are not enough Catholics in the area around those schools. The simple truth is, over the last 30 years there has been an incredible migration of Catholics to the suburbs…the Catholic schools followed them. It makes sense that we would see catholic schools in the areas where there are Catholics.
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Not true in our area. We have schools in trouble in the suburbs for the reasons I submitted in my earlier post.

You posted: Our mission to the poor is to feed them and clothe them…Jesus never once told us to pay for their Catholic education.

One of the basic tenets of Catholicism is to evangelize. Catholic schools are meant to evangelize and also teach. Today there is more emphasis on teaching than evangelization.
 
buffalo,

I never said close the Churches, the faith has to be made present throughout the world and Priest/missionaries should remain present in every area. However, Catholic schools were never intended for non-catholics, they are intended to teach the faith to baptized Catholics.
 
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TPJCatholic:
buffalo,

I never said close the Churches, the faith has to be made present throughout the world and Priest/missionaries should remain present in every area. However, Catholic schools were never intended for non-catholics, they are intended to teach the faith to baptized Catholics.
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Aren’t baptized Catholics in need of evangelization?
 
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