What's Next for Distressed Parochial-School Families?

Philadelphia Inquirer
January 10, 2012

http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/20120110_What_s_next_for_distressed_parochial-school_families_.html

THE BRUNT of the impact of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia closing 49 of its schools will surely be felt by the teachers, students and parents of those schools closing - and most especially the high-school juniors who will be forced to find another school from which to graduate - and hopefully stay on course for college.

But the Archdiocese's closure of 45 elementary schools and four high schools - affecting more than 22,000 students and 1,700 teachers - is a move that will affect the whole city. We're a far cry from the era when 12 percent of schoolchildren were educated in Catholic schools, and the church and its affiliated schools dominated some communities. But despite the storm of changes that have buffeted the church in the last few generations, parochial schools are still deeply embedded in many city neighborhoods. Their absence will be felt by all.

In fact, this is another reckoning for education in the city. The disappearance of a quarter of the parochial-educational system is not insignificant, particularly with its enviable graduation rate (99.7 percent in Philadelphia) and college attainment (92.5 percent post-secondary-education enrollment).

This particular reckoning was long overdue; not just here, but across the country. A number of reports have documented the decline of Catholic education; one, from Education Next, maintains that while the general Catholic population in the United States has remained about the same since 1965, school population has plummeted, from 5.2 million to 2.3 million in 2006.

The blue-ribbon panel that recommended the closings announced last week said that the declining enrollment had been going on for at least a decade; one panel member blamed naivete and an unwillingness to face reality for keeping the cuts from coming sooner. We also have to wonder how much the major distractions of the church's abuse scandal - with two damning grand-jury reports, in 2005 and 2011, focused on the Archdiocese - were a factor. We can only conjecture as to what impact that scandal had on the faithful's willingness to contribute to the church, and on those declining enrollment figures. Certainly the explosion of charter schools in the city also must be factored in. No figures are available on how many Catholic-school parents are opting for charters, but in the Education Next report, the Rev. Ronald Nuzzi, director of a Catholic-education leadership program at Notre Dame, says that charter schools "are one of the biggest threats to Catholic schools in the inner city, hands down."

The bottom line: Parochial schools have been a critical public-school alternative for middle-class families, Catholic and non-Catholic. Now, many will have to contemplate the leap to private schools, or, for those who can't afford the tuition, back into the public system.

Some say this crisis will be an opportunity for vouchers; church leaders are urging their faithful to lobby Harrisburg. Vouchers might be good for Catholic schools but not so much for struggling public schools. The solution must be more inclusive. The Nutter administration should consider a meeting with the school district, charters and the Archdiocese. The futures of our kids are at stake - no matter what their religion.