More bleak Catholic School News

[Elizabeth502]

www.nytimes.com/2009/01/18/education/18catholic.html?_r=1&hp

This follows the recent NYT article about the 14 schools.

Some quotes:
"When the Diocese of Brooklyn last week proposed closing 14 more elementary schools, it was not the deepest but only the latest of a thousand cuts suffered, one tearful closing announcement at a time, as enrollment in the nation’s Catholic schools has steadily dropped by more than half from its peak of five million 40 years ago.

But recently, after years of what frustrated parents describe as inertia in the church hierarchy, a sense of urgency seems to be gripping many Catholics who suddenly see in the shrinking enrollment a once unimaginable prospect: a country without Catholic schools.

…

A series of major studies in the past few years, including one by the White House Domestic Policy Council, have described the dwindling presence of parochial schools as a crisis not just for Catholics but for society."

 

[rien]

www.nytimes.com/2009/01/18/education/18catholic.html?_r=1&hp

This follows the recent NYT article about the 14 schools.

Some quotes:
"When the Diocese of Brooklyn last week proposed closing 14 more elementary schools, it was not the deepest but only the latest of a thousand cuts suffered, one tearful closing announcement at a time, as enrollment in the nation’s Catholic schools has steadily dropped by more than half from its peak of five million 40 years ago.

But recently, after years of what frustrated parents describe as inertia in the church hierarchy, a sense of urgency seems to be gripping many Catholics who suddenly see in the shrinking enrollment a once unimaginable prospect: a country without Catholic schools.

…

A series of major studies in the past few years, including one by the White House Domestic Policy Council, have described the dwindling presence of parochial schools as a crisis not just for Catholics but for society."

Its not all negative. Christian (evangelical) schools are growing at a fast pace. Also the Orthodox are starting to open schools in the US.

 

[SwizzleStick]

Its not all negative. Christian (evangelical) schools are growing at a fast pace. Also the Orthodox are starting to open schools in the US.

It’s negative if one is a Catholic. The fact that Christian (evangelical) schools are growing and the Orthodox are starting to open schools is good news for those folks, I guess, but not for a Catholic. I want my child to go to a Catholic school, not a Christian (evangelical) or Orthodox school. I want my child to learn the Catholic faith from us and have that faith supported and nourished at school, so it is very important that they attend a Catholic school.

 

[Mrs_V]

If we could afford to send our children to a Catholic school we would love to. But with the number of children we’d like to have times the amount of tuition it takes for the average school… it just doesn’t seem possible. We’re doing our best to teach what we can about the faith at home and pray that public schools are enough. You have to choose between family size and Catholic education in this day and age. (Unless you have been blessed with very good paying work, of course.)

 

[irishpatrick]

Catholic parents need to restructure their lives so they can place their kids in Catholics schools and Catholic schools need to return to the faith so Catholic parents know their kids will be given the fullness of truth.

I might be wrong about this, yet I think the Catholic schools in faithful dioceses are flourishing.

This is a true crisis and only Catholics can solve it…we need checkbooks opened and hearts changed and sacrifices made. We need this NOW, not later when it is too late. We also need to get the word out NOW, not later when it is too late.

We lose Catholic schools and we lose the nation for good.

IMO.

 

[irishpatrick]

If we could afford to send our children to a Catholic school we would love to. But with the number of children we’d like to have times the amount of tuition it takes for the average school… it just doesn’t seem possible. We’re doing our best to teach what we can about the faith at home and pray that public schools are enough. You have to choose between family size and Catholic education in this day and age. (Unless you have been blessed with very good paying work, of course.)

You can also place your first child in a Catholic school and then leave it in the Lord’s hands to help you find the money for that child’s siblings…the Lord does and will provide.

 

[Elizabeth502]

It’s negative if one is a Catholic. The fact that Christian (evangelical) schools are growing and the Orthodox are starting to open schools is good news for those folks, I guess, but not for a Catholic. I want my child to go to a Catholic school, not a Christian (evangelical) or Orthodox school. I want my child to learn the Catholic faith from us and have that faith supported and nourished at school, so it is very important that they attend a Catholic school.

I completely agree. It’s immaterial how many Protestant or Orthodox schools are built. Schools in the Roman tradition are closing; that’s the issue.

 

[HouseArrest]

Tuition in our diocese, especially in our county, is not much at all. Yet we keep losing students every year. There are various reasons why they leave, among the most common reasons are that the public school sports teams are better, our school is for nerds, kids don’t want to wear uniforms, there are bigger classes with more friend possibilities at the public school, etc., etc. It’s interesting that the faith our school offers is at the bottom of the list in importance. I think that is sad. Our religious education program is also no good. So it’s not like they can fall back on that.

I just don’t get it.

 

[Elizabeth502]

Catholic parents need to restructure their lives so they can place their kids in Catholics schools and Catholic schools need to return to the faith so Catholic parents know their kids will be given the fullness of truth.

I might be wrong about this, yet I think the Catholic schools in faithful dioceses are flourishing.

This is a true crisis and only Catholics can solve it…we need checkbooks opened and hearts changed and sacrifices made. We need this NOW, not later when it is too late. We also need to get the word out NOW, not later when it is too late.

We lose Catholic schools and we lose the nation for good.

IMO.

I agree with this, too. As to “opening checkbooks,” I know from personal experience (having sent my own girls to Catholic schools from K-12, despite the expense), that parochial schools (vs. independent Catholic schools) have a lousy history of significant financial aid. In my region, a family is eligible for certain “extreme” financial aid (from Catholic agencies) only if you are already practically homeless (living significantly below the national poverty line). The individual schools usually give around 20% aid against tuition, which is not enough to make a difference, especially for a family with more than one school-age child.

This is a real social justice opportunity for Catholics, whether single and well off, or whether parents whose children have already graduated: Let’s start a Sponsor-a-Catholic-student campaign. Token monthly contributions by even 20 parishioners with a local school could support one student in need, or subsidize a couple of students who otherwise would not be able to afford it.

Personally, I think I will approach some of our local pastors with this idea, so it can be published in the bulletin. I do so with the intention of contributing something, myself.

 

[Gertabelle]

My young son will be starting kindergarten this fall. (Whoa, those words are shocking to my system!) I have been researching which school to send him to for the past two years – no kidding, two years! As a teacher, I am unabashedly curious about schools other than my own (hence, the pursuit of a doctorate).

Anyway, I was completely shocked – SHOCKED – by the amount of tuition being charged by so many of the private schools, Catholic and other. I attended 12 years of Catholic school, and though I know paying my tuition was often a sacrific for my parents, I don’t think it was anything in comparision to the $10K being charged by some schools these days! A thousand dollars a month? Are you kidding me? While I realize that teachers must be paid, I also know that most families cannot possibly afford the tuition being charged by these schools. One school told me that over half their students received scholarships of half tuition. My thought was, if you can afford that many scholarships, why not just lower the tuition in the first place?

Through God’s plan and grace, it just so happens that the least expensive Catholic school in our area just happens to be only a couple miles from my work. I love the parish, they are very orthodox, and I’ve heard good things about the school. If it be God’s will, they will have a spot for my son.

For me, the choice to send my son to a Catholic school was based largely on the fact that his father is practicing Sufism, so I want support in raising my son Catholic. Suprisingly, his dad placed a Catholic school in his top two choices for our son’s education! God works in mysterious ways.

Gertie

 

[CHESTERTONRULES]

www.nytimes.com/2009/01/18/education/18catholic.html?_r=1&hp

This follows the recent NYT article about the 14 schools.

Some quotes:
"When the Diocese of Brooklyn last week proposed closing 14 more elementary schools, it was not the deepest but only the latest of a thousand cuts suffered, one tearful closing announcement at a time, as enrollment in the nation’s Catholic schools has steadily dropped by more than half from its peak of five million 40 years ago.

But recently, after years of what frustrated parents describe as inertia in the church hierarchy, a sense of urgency seems to be gripping many Catholics who suddenly see in the shrinking enrollment a once unimaginable prospect: a country without Catholic schools.

…

A series of major studies in the past few years, including one by the White House Domestic Policy Council, have described the dwindling presence of parochial schools as a crisis not just for Catholics but for society."

Check out: napcis.org/

This is the national association of private catholic and independent schools.

These are schools that teach sound Catholic doctrine but are not affiliated with any parish.

I’m sure there are many great Catholic Schools, but there is also a growing number of Catholics who want more solid faith formation and a higher academic standard from their schools. They also want schools that are affordable to large families.

There is also a huge Catholic home schooling movement.

Catholicsm, like much of America, was flooded with liberal ideology in the 60s and 70s. This damaged many once great Catholic schools.

There is a revival in the Catholic faith taking place in America today.

 

[irishpatrick]

Tuition in our diocese, especially in our county, is not much at all. Yet we keep losing students every year. There are various reasons why they leave, among the most common reasons are that the public school sports teams are better, our school is for nerds, kids don’t want to wear uniforms, there are bigger classes with more friend possibilities at the public school, etc., etc. It’s interesting that the faith our school offers is at the bottom of the list in importance. I think that is sad. Our religious education program is also no good. So it’s not like they can fall back on that.

I just don’t get it.

IMO, none of those reasons are the real reasons. The parents of those kids are more than likely very weak in the faith, that is he problem. Sports and such should always come after the faith and a well formed Catholic parent would know that.

 

[irishpatrick]

I agree with this, too. As to “opening checkbooks,” I know from personal experience (having sent my own girls to Catholic schools from K-12, despite the expense), that parochial schools (vs. independent Catholic schools) have a lousy history of significant financial aid. In my region, a family is eligible for certain “extreme” financial aid (from Catholic agencies) only if you are already practically homeless (living significantly below the national poverty line). The individual schools usually give around 20% aid against tuition, which is not enough to make a difference, especially for a family with more than one school-age child.

This is a real social justice opportunity for Catholics, whether single and well off, or whether parents whose children have already graduated: Let’s start a Sponsor-a-Catholic-student campaign. Token monthly contributions by even 20 parishioners with a local school could support one student in need, or subsidize a couple of students who otherwise would not be able to afford it.

Personally, I think I will approach some of our local pastors with this idea, so it can be published in the bulletin. I do so with the intention of contributing something, myself.

Great idea. One of our local RCC schools has this in place. They ask for contributions each you to sponsor a child for the school. This, I believe, is the one area that Catholics can help in very large numbers. Those with kids who are grown, or are at least older, can contribute money towards sponsoring children going to the parish school. Many Catholics forget that we have a call to help raise all Catholic children in the faith, not just our own.

 

[SwizzleStick]

IMO, none of those reasons are the real reasons. The parents of those kids are more than likely very weak in the faith, that is he problem. Sports and such should always come after the faith and a well formed Catholic parent would know that.

Sadly, just because a child attends Catholic school does not mean that the family is strong in their faith. My children attend Catholic school and my daughter has a friend and the friend self-identifies her parents as “Chreasters.” When my daughter asked her what that meant, the friend replied that her parents attended Mass only twice a year, Christmas and Easter and, thus, were “Chreasters.” Missing Mass on Sunday for the friend happens when the grandparents cannot take her to Church on Saturday or Sunday. (They have school on most Holy Days because our pastor wants to make sure the children observe the Holy Days, which is great in my opinion). Of course, my daughter was then extremely worried about the soul of her friend and wanted our family to take the friend with us to Mass whenever the grandparents could not take the friend so the friend could at least get to Mass. Anyway, I digress. I think some of the families at our Catholic school are there because they are Catholic, but very casual about their faith and just want their children in a private school rather than public school and are willing to pay for that option.

 

[irishpatrick]

Sadly, just because a child attends Catholic school does not mean that the family is strong in their faith. My children attend Catholic school and my daughter has a friend and the friend self-identifies her parents as “Chreasters.” When my daughter asked her what that meant, the friend replied that her parents attended Mass only twice a year, Christmas and Easter and, thus, were “Chreasters.” Missing Mass on Sunday for the friend happens when the grandparents cannot take her to Church on Saturday or Sunday. (They have school on most Holy Days because our pastor wants to make sure the children observe the Holy Days, which is great in my opinion). Of course, my daughter was then extremely worried about the soul of her friend and wanted our family to take the friend with us to Mass whenever the grandparents could not take the friend so the friend could at least get to Mass. Anyway, I digress. I think some of the families at our Catholic school are there because they are Catholic, but very casual about their faith and just want their children in a private school rather than public school and are willing to pay for that option.

I agree and nothing is perfect. Yet,in general if parents care enough to pay for their kids to go to RCC schools, then they are more often then not fairly faithful. There are always exceptions and even if those parents are not faithful, their children are getting sound exposure in the school. Imagine how bad-off those children would be if they had parents like that AND they went to public school…

 

[SwizzleStick]

I agree and nothing is perfect. Yet,in general if parents care enough to pay for their kids to go to RCC schools, then they are more often then not fairly faithful. There are always exceptions and even if those parents are not faithful, their children are getting sound exposure in the school. Imagine how bad-off those children would be if they had parents like that AND they went to public school…

I do agree with you. The majority of the children who attend RCC are there because it is very important to the parents that they get a good, solid Catholic education.

 

[Elizabeth502]

Sadly, just because a child attends Catholic school does not mean that the family is strong in their faith. My children attend Catholic school and my daughter has a friend and the friend self-identifies her parents as “Chreasters.” When my daughter asked her what that meant, the friend replied that her parents attended Mass only twice a year, Christmas and Easter and, thus, were “Chreasters.” Missing Mass on Sunday for the friend happens when the grandparents cannot take her to Church on Saturday or Sunday. (They have school on most Holy Days because our pastor wants to make sure the children observe the Holy Days, which is great in my opinion). Of course, my daughter was then extremely worried about the soul of her friend and wanted our family to take the friend with us to Mass whenever the friend could not go so the friend could at least go to church with us. Anyway, I digress. I think some of the families at our Catholic school are there because they are Catholic, but very casual about their faith and just want their children in a private school rather than public school and are willing to pay for that option.

I know that. It happens in a couple of our hill-location Catholic schools. Not much commitment. Lots of going-through-the motions. Some parish schools can be ‘secular’ in atmosphere, and even as materialistic (i.e., the families) as any private secular school. That said, I still support their existence, for a few reasons:

(1) they are places where parents, teachers, students can actually talk about their faith or just “admit” being Catholic, without embarrassment, censure, etc. That may sound silly, but in many locations it’s considered not very politically correct to be Catholic.

(2) opportunities for the sacraments. Not just the initial catechesis toward Eucharist and Penance, but regular opportunity for Mass on the church/school grounds.

(3) Values within the curriculum, as well as official celebration of Christian-oriented holidays such as Christmas/Easter. You might be amazed at how many secular private schools (not to mention publics) refuse to allow a frankly Christmas celebration in the school (even if this is a secular celebration), for fear of ‘offending’ non-Christians. They might allow in some cases a multi-cultural celebration. (Some schools in my area allow a Winter Solstice celebration; others allow multi-cultural ones such as Chanukah, Xmas, Kwanzaa).

(4) Occasionally in Catholic schools a religious is still very involved in the school itself: as a principal, consultant, librarian, or teacher. This is an excellent witness. Schools lucky enough to share site property with the parish church itself – and if the pastor is active, supportive of the school – have an additional witness in him as well.

This last point #4 is a personal passion of mine. Many of us remember having been educated overwhelmingly by nuns. They were the heart and soul of Catholic schools, working tirelessly and virtuously, often. Their disappearance has really affected the atmospheres and the financial health of those schools. (Teaching was a religious mission of these sisters, and since they were being supported by their communities, via the Church, pay was not an issue.)

I know we will not return any time soon to Catholic schools filled with nuns. However, I do wish that some of the nuns engaged in social work would redirect their efforts toward education. Many of them are gifted teachers, and my personal belief is that they are more essential there (as long as they can and want to teach), than in the field of social work which has plenty of moral secularists already – good people of many faiths and of no faith who work with the homeless and in many such causes.

 

[irishpatrick]

I do agree with you. The majority of the children who attend RCC are there because it is very important to the parents that they get a good, solid Catholic education.

I once had a conversation with a first grade teacher at a RCC school. She told us about how some of the students in their school were not Catholic, and that the parents of those kids often ask for their children to be opted-out of religion classes. The teacher then laughed and said, “it is fine with us when non-Catholic parents ask for those opt-outs because we get to talk about Jesus all day long anway, not just in religion class.”

 

[JReducation]

Sadly, just because a child attends Catholic school does not mean that the family is strong in their faith. My children attend Catholic school and my daughter has a friend and the friend self-identifies her parents as “Chreasters.” When my daughter asked her what that meant, the friend replied that her parents attended Mass only twice a year, Christmas and Easter and, thus, were “Chreasters.” Missing Mass on Sunday for the friend happens when the grandparents cannot take her to Church on Saturday or Sunday. (They have school on most Holy Days because our pastor wants to make sure the children observe the Holy Days, which is great in my opinion). Of course, my daughter was then extremely worried about the soul of her friend and wanted our family to take the friend with us to Mass whenever the grandparents could not take the friend so the friend could at least get to Mass. Anyway, I digress. I think some of the families at our Catholic school are there because they are Catholic, but very casual about their faith and just want their children in a private school rather than public school and are willing to pay for that option.

This is probably the best assessment of the situation that I have seen on this thread thus far. I have been a Catholic School teacher and principal. Both of my children attended Catholic school. My son had to move to a secular private high school because of his autism. There is no high school in our diocese that offers special services to children with disabilities. But my daughter graduated from Catholic high school and my son went up to grade 8.

There is another thing that has been skimmed over on this thread, but not addressed head-on and that’s salaries. Catholic school teachers make very little money and have very few benefits. Therefore, there is going to be a shortage of good teachers. We have to be honest and recognize that teachers have families of their own. They need competative pay and competative benefits.

If you teach at the local public school you do not pay FICA. The state pays for your retirement, 100%, the state pays your insurance 100% and you pay a fraction to cover your family. The state pays your malpractice insurance 100%. There is grade pay as you move along. You get more money for each year of experience and for every degree that you get. The pay scale is both horizontal and vertical. There are incentive pays for people in academic areas where there is a higher demand, such as science, math and special education. You have job security, because you’re usually protected by a union, for better or worse. When you tally this up into dollars and cents, it’s a lot of money.

Even though the salary may only be 20% more than Catholic Schools, the benefits add up to another 10%. Heads of household and single people can’t always make it on a Catholic School salary. On the other hand, parents can’t always pay the tuition so that the school can put out that kind of salary and benefits. It’s an economic problem as well as a spiritual problem.

Schools staffed by religious are still standing, because religious get paid about 12K a year. That’s nothing. They don’t get all of the fringe benefits. The community takes care of those things. I know a school run by a religious order that is not a parish school. The order owns the school. There is no subsidy from the parish. Those kids havae to pay 17K a year. It’s the only way that they can pay the lay teachers, even though they have 10 sisters on the faculty, but they also have 400 kids in the school. The 10 sisters are not enough to cover all of the academics, administration, sports, extracurricular, computer labs, library, transportation, cafeteria and so forth.

We can’t blame it all on the parent’s lack of faith. The economy is what it is. Catholic schools can’t make the money grow on trees.

Fraternally,

JR

 

[manualman]

The economic argument utterly misses the point. The US catholic school system is the largest private school system in the world and it was originally built by catholics who were on THE lowest rung of America’s social ladder. Today catholics are among the richer of America’s cultural groups and all we can do is whine about the cost?

It is NOT about the cost. It is about the mission. For my entire life, the focus of catholic school marketing has been about how good their test scores are, how many go on to great colleges, etc. Academics are great, don’t get me wrong. But they aren’t why our impoverished forefathers built them from nothing.

100 years ago the US culture was OVERTLY hostile to catholicism. There was no subtlety. We were called papists and if we sent our kids to the public schools they were indoctrinated with protestant ideas. In a way, those ham-fisted ‘Know-Nothings’ did us a favor in that they couldn’t be overlooked or ignored. Catholics said “You are NOT going to brainwash my kids” and simply built their own school system that taught academics in a CATHOLIC environment.

Catholics today just don’t seem to notice that we live in a culture that is JUST AS HOSTILE to our faith as the culture 100 years ago. It is just a much more subtle hostility. And catholics today are mostly unaware of just how much our culture is influencing us and our children. They don’t perceive the value of placing their children in an authentically catholic environment (and to be fair, an awful lot of catholic schools don’t put much effort into providing it).

Catholic schools will thrive anew when the Church again does a better job of prophetically telling the flock of the dangers present in our secular culture and the catholic schools reclaim their primary purpose of providing an oasis of authentic catholic culture and learning in the desert of this fallen world.