by Robert Pondiscio
April 21st, 2009
Tags: Barack Obama, Catholic schools, Checker Finn, stimulus package
Posted in Educational Policy | 3 Comments »
The disappearance of Catholic schools from America’s inner cities is ”a national education crisis that needs a national response,” argue Checker Finn and Andy Smarick in a Washington Post op-ed. To their credit, Finn’s Fordham Foundation has been a long-time, loud and too often lonely voice urging action to save Catholic schools. They write:
Most urban Catholic schools were originally built to educate the children of European immigrants; today, they mostly serve poor African American and Latino students. With their long track record of successfully educating ill-served populations, these schools can play a central role in the nation’s effort to expand educational opportunity and reduce the achievement gap. But not if they disappear.
Reformers love scale, so try this comparison: KIPP runs 66 public schools in 19 states and the District of Columbia serving just over 16,000 students. Catholic schools serving 25 times that number of children closed down from 2000 to 2006–nearly 1,200 faith-based urban schools closed, serving 425,000 students. And these are schools that produce results. Diane Ravitch recently noted that in New York City, the four-year graduation rate at Catholic high schools is 99.5%, with 98% of high school graduates enrolling in college. Finn and Smarick want the Obama administration to “help turn this fatal tide” of Catholic school closings.
Stimulus funds could be used to shore up schools on the brink, provide assistance to their teachers and administrators, or expand and replicate promising local strategies. The president could support education tax credits or scholarships, which would help needy students and stabilize school enrollments. By simply underscoring his support and concern for these schools, he would indicate the bipartisan nature of this issue, thereby providing cover to others eager to act but wary of the political implications.
It’s fashionable (and facile) for antagonists in ed policy debates to frame arguments in terms of who’s on the side of children vs. who’s concerned about adults. Here are schools successfully serving two million kids. Who’s on their side? And before one argues that there are church/state issues here, and that public dollars must not go to religious schools, remember that’s exactly what happens every time a Pell Grant pays a student’s tuition at Georgetown, BC, or Notre Dame.
This just in: Eduwonk likes Catholic schools “but remains unpersuaded on the need for a public bailout of Catholic schools absent a lot of reciprocal accountability and transparency.”
by Robert Pondiscio
January 29th, 2009
Tags: Caroline Kennedy, Catholic schools
Posted in Education News, Opinion | 3 Comments »
She won’t have the chance to be New York’s senator, but Diane Ravitch has another job in mind for Caroline Kennedy. “She can save New York City’s Catholic schools, which are in the throes of a fiscal meltdown,” Diane writes in a smart op-ed in the NY Daily News.
The research on Catholic education is overwhelmingly positive. Children who attend Catholic schools get a superior academic education. They also get a strong foundation in social and moral values. The four-year graduation rate at Catholic high schools is 99.5%; 98% of the high school graduates enroll in college. Most of the Catholic schools serve students who are predominantly African-American and Hispanic. (And, we must remember, many of them enroll students who are not Catholic.)
Few people are better suited to ride to the rescue than Kennedy, Ravitch observes, noting Kennedy helped raise almost $240 million for the city’s public schools. “If the same amount had been raised for the city’s Catholic schools,” she notes, “not a single one of them would have to close.”
by Robert Pondiscio
January 28th, 2009
Tags: Catholic schools, Fordham Foundation, Wall Street Journal
Posted in Educational Policy, Opinion | 2 Comments »
If President Obama wants to address the crisis in America’s urban schools, he could start by acknowledging the contributions of Catholic schools. In an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal, William McGurn notes America’s Catholic schools are in the midst of a crisis, with enrollment less than half what it was at its peak. Though doing a heroic job, he notes, they are closing their doors at an alarming rate.
Catholic schools are not for everyone, and they are not the answer for all that plagues our cities. But they are an answer — one answer that is real, less costly, and working for many families desperate for the opportunities these schools provide. With a little imagination, these schools could reach many more such children.
McGurn notes the President spent more time in Catholic school as a child than JFK. “Simply by acknowledging Catholic schools as a national treasure that should be preserved,” he writes, “Mr. Obama would give them a badly needed shot in the arm.”
The Fordham Foundation weighed in on this issue last year with their report, “Who Will Save America’s Urban Catholic Schools?”
