NY Times: As Catholic Schools Close in Major Cities, the Need Only Grows

[alp227]

Amid the grandeur and permanence of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, they marched down the aisle in pairs, the graduating seniors of Rice High School in Harlem. They were the 70th commencement class in the school’s history, the latest to bear the venerable epithet of being “Rice men.”

All those trappings of longevity, the bronze doors and marble pulpit and stained glass, were illusory. The graduation ceremony on May 27 was the last ever for Rice, which is being closed, and the event was most significant as a symbol of the continuing contraction of Roman Catholic education in the urban settings where it has been most needed.

Over the last half-century, the number of Catholic schools has fallen to 7,000 from about 13,000, and their enrollment to barely two million children from more than five million. A disproportionate share of the damage has come in big cities.

To grasp what is being lost, one needed only to look through the roster in the graduation program for Rice. With a student body that is 98 percent black or Hispanic, with 80 percent of its students requiring financial aid, virtually every graduating senior was bound for college: Penn, Cincinnati, Holy Cross, Fairfield, Iona. Four of the Rice men had received scholarships in excess of $150,000.

Full story: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/04/us/04religion.html

Hmm, how about the discussion of how to improve public education in urban areas? Is religious education really important to create a well-rounded individual with good character? Still it's sad to see that the recession has impacted what is for some students a rare, hard to find opportunity for quality education.

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. Too many scandals in the Catholic church

Here in KC, a priest was just arrested for possession of child porn. He worked with children in a parish school. The church knew he was a problem and covered it up. Frankly, if I was a parent of school age children, I would avoid a Catholic school like the plague.

And I went to Catholic school and sent my own child (now an adult) to a Catholic school. But I would never do that today.

[alp227]

2. I have several friends including a committed atheist who attended Catholic high schools

when I went to a public high school. Putting aside the Catholic sex scandal they had a good experience at their schools, but some of them came out with critical view of some of the religious teachings. I've never heard of any child molesters in those schools, but situation can vary outside where I live (the Bay Area of California).

[HockeyMom]

3. I went to catholic school in NYC

I also swore I would never subject my own children to that, and I didn't. I am sure my own future grandkids wouldn't be going to catholic school either. Neither I, nor my adult children, are practicing catholics.