“An Honest Response to Serious Losses”: Recent Initiatives in American Catholic Education

The recent history of American Catholic education has been a combination of adversity and opportunity. Bishops across the nation have struggled to sustain parish schools to little avail. Since the year 2000 approximately 460,000 students have been displaced from Catholic schools in urban areas alone – a figure that represents more than 17 percent of the Catholic school population across the nation. Several strategies have emerged over the past ten years to address this crisis; all have strengths and weaknesses and all are worthy of special attention. This article provides an overview of several operative strategies, but concentrates on two efforts – 1) the growth of the Cristo Rey and NativityMiguel school networks, and 2) the work of the University Consortium for Catholic Education. It is likely that all of these efforts will continue to contribute to the mosaic that will make up the future of Catholic education in the United States.

“Philadelphia Schools Shut By Diocese,” read the headline in the Wall Street Journal. The paper reported on January 7, 2012 that the archdiocese was closing forty-four elementary schools and four high schools as a response to declining enrollments and dismal economics. In the aftermath of the announcement, however, the archdiocese was able to find the resources to soften the impact of the closures. In the end, the four high schools were saved, some elementary schools were combined, and twelve schools were shuttered.

Although dramatic, the situation in Philadelphia was not really news. Catholic school enrollments in the archdiocese had declined more than 70 percent over the past fifty years. “No archbishop, and no school administrator, ever wants to see a Catholic school closed,” remarked Archbishop Charles Chaput. “But as I often say, we can’t afford to fool ourselves. We need an honest response to serious losses.”¹

This was not the course of Catholic education in Philadelphia or the rest of the country, for that matter, up to 1960.² Although the establishment and maintenance of parochial schools had been a struggle since the first one was opened in Philadelphia in 1783, it was a given that these institutions were a vital part of the church and would survive – even thrive – in perpetuity. No one questioned this fact. By 1965, the number of Catholic schools in the nation had passed ten thousand and the number of students enrolled was more than 4.5 million; both were record totals.³

But a funny thing happened on the way to the future. An ecumenical council in the 1960s “liberated” American Catholics to challenge the need for parish schools. One result was that the number of Catholic schools and correlate enrollments declined steadily after 1970.⁴

And we haven’t hit bottom yet. Since the year 2000, for example, approximately 460,000 students have been displaced from Catholic schools in urban areas alone – a figure that represents more than 17 percent of the Catholic school population across the nation.⁵

There is no single reason for all these closures; certainly the Second Vatican Council contributed to the decline, but one can also point to prosperity and demographics as contributing factors. As early as the 1950s, Catholics began to abandon older, inner-city neighborhoods in favor of new suburban subdivisions of mixed religious and ethnic traditions. Although Catholic families stayed loyal to the church, few saw the need to build and support parish schools in their new subdivisions.

Adding to the crisis was the substantial and rapid departure of Catholic sister-teachers from parochial school classrooms. In 1970, for example, more than half of the teachers and administrators in Catholic schools were professed religious; by the end of the century, the percentage had declined to under five percent. As one social scientist put it, “the vocations crisis [alone] had rendered the traditional business model for Catholic schools inoperative; personnel costs were simply too high to sustain a system based on religious vows.”⁶

Not surprisingly, several strategies to address this crisis have emerged over the past ten years; all have strengths and weaknesses and all are worthy of special attention...