Washington, Gay Marriage and the Catholic Church

[JReducation]

I should probably start a new thread on this but this is one of my hobby horses.

I do mean schools run by Catholics according to Catholic rules but I don’t simply mean schools that service the dioces but, rather, schools that serve Catholics and non-Catholics alike. (Where I went to high school we had a few Muslims and they were required to attend Mass with the rest of us though, obviously, not required to take Holy Communion.)

You could begin simply enough by expanding existing parachocial schools (e.g. in nominally Catholic areas like Los Angeles). Just pump in Catholic money to fund students who can’t otherwise afford parochial school. Steal the most serious students/famillies from public schools by offering a better, free alternative.

Then deal with the flood of applicants by building more schools. Empty the public schools and, then, when the public schools are empty (which occurs when they are consolidated) buy or lease them.

Repeat until Catholics run all the inner city schools.

If I’m understanding what you’re proposing there are two major problems:

1. It is a violation of most state constitutions to surrender their education system to one religious group.
2. Even if it were constitutional, the Catholic education system cannot afford this. The legal requirements are very expensive. We no longer have large teaching communities of religious women who worked for housing. The number of lay teachers that would be required is incredible. They have to meet state standards of certification, which costs thousands of dollars. The schools have to meet accreditation standards that costs millions of dollars. The schools would still be subject to the State Department of Education. The only way to get around that is to make them unaccredited. But students who graduate from unaccredited schools cannot get into college or technical institutes. Colleges and universities have the right to demand accredited diplomas. You would have to change those requirements too. As it is now, many colleges and universities are recruiting foreign students because American students do not meet the entrance requirements, either their schools are not accredited or the level of education of many of our public school systems is so low that the students cannot compete in college. It would take billions of dollars to raise these schools to the level that is competative with foreign high schools. The last report that I read from ACT, only 60% of American high school graduates were college ready. Where are we going to get the money to change this? The state can’t seem to change it and it has many more resources than the Church does.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF

 

[Rich_Olszewski]

If I’m understanding what you’re proposing there are two major problems:

1. It is a violation of most state constitutions to surrender their education system to one religious group.
2. Even if it were constitutional, the Catholic education system cannot afford this.

Spot on!! A lot of people don’t realize that those armies of teaching Sisters and Brothers worked for no more than room and board, and some medical attention. Try that today!

 

[JReducation]

Spot on!! A lot of people don’t realize that those armies of teaching Sisters and Brothers worked for no more than room and board, and some medical attention. Try that today!

You can’t do it. The number of students that we’re discussing here is much larger than the immirgrant Catholics, which was the main target population of our old Catholic school systems.

The number of teaching brothers and sistes is no longer as large. Even in its best times, the number would not have been enough for a nation of almost 350 million people. I can’t see how Catholic schools are going to offer lay teachers the salaries and benefits that public schools offer. Most Catholic school teachers have other sources of income, such as a spouse with a good paying job and good benefits. A head of household can rarely afford to teach in a Catholic school.

The large teaching congregations of brothers, such as the Christian Brothers, are no longer putting their focus on the USA. They are focussing on the developing nations, because they were founded to teach the poor. The USA is not poor. It can afford to provide good education for its students, if it managed its money better. I can’t imagine the Superior General of the Christian Brothers ordering back to the USA at the expense of African, Asian and South American students who will be unable to get a public school education, because it’s not available.

When I was a missionary in South America we hade hundreds of Christian Brothers from the USA, Europe and Canada. We had hundreds of Jesuits too. They ran excellent schools. Only the elite private schools could compete with them. There were also Salesians, another teaching congregation, School Sisters of St. Joseph and many Sisters of Providence. There were also many European congregations that no longer serve European schools for the same reason. The European states are not poor. They can afford to provide good education and they usually do. In the USA, we can afford it, but we have too many pockets where it’s not done.

What we are seeing is Sisters like the Dominicans of Mary, Dominicans of St. Cecilia and a few other teaching congregations filling in those pockets. But I can’t see them taking on a national system or the need to do so.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF

 

[Bubba_Switzler]

If I’m understanding what you’re proposing there are two major problems: 1. It is a violation of most state constitutions to surrender their education system to one religious group.

The way I’m proposing this there would be no formal surrender. The state would continue to operate public schools, they’d just be emptied of students.

1. Even if it were constitutional, the Catholic education system cannot afford this. The legal requirements are very expensive. We no longer have large teaching communities of religious women who worked for housing. The number of lay teachers that would be required is incredible. They have to meet state standards of certification, which costs thousands of dollars. The schools have to meet accreditation standards that costs millions of dollars. The schools would still be subject to the State Department of Education. The only way to get around that is to make them unaccredited. But students who graduate from unaccredited schools cannot get into college or technical institutes. Colleges and universities have the right to demand accredited diplomas. You would have to change those requirements too. As it is now, many colleges and universities are recruiting foreign students because American students do not meet the entrance requirements, either their schools are not accredited or the level of education of many of our public school systems is so low that the students cannot compete in college. It would take billions of dollars to raise these schools to the level that is competative with foreign high schools. The last report that I read from ACT, only 60% of American high school graduates were college ready. Where are we going to get the money to change this? The state can’t seem to change it and it has many more resources than the Church does.

This is the real issue and the reason I’ve brought it up.

I think I should start a new thread on this and reply there.

 

[Bubba_Switzler]

Here is the new thread I promised:

forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?p=6209576