"Treasure A.C.E."

Here's a short piece I did, for National Review Online, celebrating the 15th anniversary of the Alliance for Catholic Education.  (I'm a fan.)  A taste:

Should non-Catholics care? Sure, the success of A.C.E. might prove a consolation in these hard times for fans of the Fighting Irish, but does it really matter?

It does. It is worth remembering that, despite the closings and declining enrollments, America’s Catholic schools make up the largest private-education system in the world. These schools are, as the Secretary of Education, Margaret Spellings, observed recently, not just a crucial component of the Church’s own mission, but also — for all that they do and have done for so many — a “national treasure.” Millions of American children — often the poor, immigrants, and minorities — have been formed, educated, and inspired by Catholic schools. Today, these schools and their teachers do heroic work in providing education, hope, safety, opportunity and values to vulnerable and marginalized children of all religions, ethnicities and backgrounds.

Often in the face of bias and bigotry, Catholic schools have, over the last century-and-a-half, relieved the state of enormous financial burdens while conferring on the political community immeasurable civic benefits. Indeed, America’s Catholic schools represent perhaps one of the most dramatic donations of time, talent, and treasure to the political community’s common good that the nation has ever seen. (Some day, when a politician complains about school-voucher programs take away “public” money for “private” schools, I’d like a bishop to present that politician with a bill for services rendered.)

We hear a lot these days about “social capital,” and about the anchoring institutions that are so important to the health of communities and the formation of character. It is important to a free society that non-government institutions thrive. Such institutions enrich and diversify what we call “civil society.” They are like bridges and buffers that mediate between the individual and the state. They are the necessary infrastructure for communities and relationships in which loyalties and values are formed and passed on and where persons develop and flourish. In our history, few institutions have played this role like Catholic schools.