"Who Will Save Catholic Schools?"

Asks Mary Rose Rybak:

Every generation lives off the cultural inheritance of its predecessors. Among that inheritance for today’s American Catholics is a network of parochial schools built by their immigrant forebears, which served both to teach the faith and ground the community. . . .

But it’s worth noting that the men and women, religious and lay, who built America’s Catholic schools did so not to educate the poor but to educate Catholics. Catholic schools were formed as a means of passing down the faith to Catholic children and were a self-conscious attempt in the early to mid-1900s to wall off children from a mainstream culture that was considered hostile to Catholics. Given this fact—and given that, contrary to Fordham’s hopes, religious charter schools are not likely to become a reality anytime soon—perhaps it’s not too ungenerous to ask whether it is entirely fair to ask Catholics to shoulder the burden of educating the urban poor? . . .

On a similar note, I was struck, in Pope Benedict's address to Catholic educators (about which several of us have blogged already), the focus was not only on universities, but on the achievements and mission of Catholic schools generally.

And, for what it's worth, I think the report of the Notre Dame Task Force on Catholic Education (on which I served) had a lot of helpful suggestions to offer.

The President, I am pleased to note, is hosting a White House summit on Catholic schools this week:

President George W. Bush said his concern about the growing loss of urban Catholic schools was a prime reason he was convening a summit on inner-city and faith-based schools the week of April 21. Speaking to the fifth annual National Catholic Prayer Breakfast April 18, Bush said the summit would highlight the lack of educational options low-income urban students are facing. "I am concerned about the loss of a major national asset, and that is the decline of Catholic schools, particularly in inner-city America," he told an enthusiastic crowd of 2,000 gathered at the Washington Hilton hotel. The summit is expected to draw educators, clergy, funders and business leaders to begin discussing options for public, private and parochial urban schools. Bush said the goal was to urge Congress to develop "reasonable legislation" and practical solutions to "save these schools and, more importantly, to save the children." Citing the long history of Catholic education in the U.S., Bush commended those in the audience who are working to preserve Catholic education.

I hope the President's successor will share his appreciation for the importance of Catholic schools.