The Catholic School Revival - WSJ

7/25/2019 The Catholic School Revival - WSJ

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Catholic School Revival - WSJ

//www.wsj.com/articles/the-catholic-school-revival-1448573850[12/3/2015 1:18:46 AM]

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A Nuclear Paradigm

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OPINION COMMENTARY

The Catholic School Revival

Religious education is borrowing lessonsand leadersfromsuccessful charters.

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At first the rise of charter schoolsto 7,000 today from 1,900 in 2000was thought to be the

nail in the coffin for Catholic education, which had been in decline for decades. Charters offer

many of the same strengths as Catholic schools: order, kindness, discipline, high expectations

(ideas initially borrowed from parochial institutions). But because charters are publicly funded,

families dont have to pay tuition. How could Catholic schools possibly compete with that?

Within the past few years, however, the borrowing has begun to go in the other direction, as

Catholic schools poach staff from charter networks, draw from the same donors, and model

their operations on charter successes. Americas usual miracle-workerscompetition, civil

society, entrepreneurial wealth and philanthropyhave come to the rescue of religious

education.

Consider the Partnership for Inner-city Education, a nonprofit formed in 2010 to take

responsibility for six Catholic schools serving disadvantaged children in Harlem and the South

Bronx. The chairman of the Partnerships board is Russ Carson, an equity-capital pioneer who

also helped build KIPP charter schools in New York. Mr. Carson and fellow donors put

Cardinal Timothy Dolan and Pope Francis visit Our Lady Queen of Angels School in New York, Sept. 25.

PHOTO: TONY GENTILE/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Nov. 26, 2015 4:37 p.m. ET

ByKARL ZINSMEISTER 60

COMMENTS


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millions of dollars into upgrading the campuses of these six Catholic schools.

More important, the schools management was transferred from the archdiocese to the

Partnership. Just as charter schools are public schools but privately managed, these are Catholic

schools but privately managed. We have effective control of the schools, Mr. Carson recently

told supporters convened by Foundations and Donors Interested in Catholic Activities. We

have the right to hire and fire the principals, the right to change the academic components.

The Partnership hired both its superintendent and chief operating officer away from

Achievement First, a charter chain. Like a top charter, the Partnership carefully tracks test

scores, student retention, costs and other metrics. Copying another classic charter innovation, it

brought on operations managers to handle business matters so that principals can focus on

instruction. The Partnership brought in coaches to retrain teachers, and began recruiting brainy

and passionate instructors from Notre Dames Alliance for Catholic Education, the religious

counterpart to Teach for America. It recently purchased a set of instructional materials popular

with charters.

The story is similar in Philadelphia, Camden, N.J., and other cities. Donor networks have

brought modern management to Catholic schools. Social entrepreneurs have injected fresh ideas

and energy. New technology, like the blended learning curriculum created specifically for

Catholic schools by Seton Education Partners, has simultaneously raised the quality of

instruction and cut costs. This year Rob Birdsell, B.J. Cassin and John Eriksen created the

Drexel Fund, an investment pool to seed new Catholic schools across the country with $85

million being raised from venture philanthropists. Donor and business support have expanded

the Cristo Rey Network from one to 30 Catholic schools that mix academic study with work at

real jobs.

At the same time, state and local school-choice programs are surging. In 2000 only 29,000

students attended a religious or private school with public supporttypically through vouchers

or tax credits. In 2014 nearly 354,000 did, according to the American Federation for Children.

Even states like New York and Illinois are now considering programs to help parents afford

nongovernmental schools.

This is quite a turnaround. Starting in the mid-1960s, 6,000 inner-city Catholic schools were

closed, the National Catholic Educational Association reports, sealing off escape hatches for

children in low-income neighborhoods. A panel on these closures that my former boss Pat
http://afcgrowthfund.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/AFC_2014-15_Yearbook.pdfhttp://afcgrowthfund.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/AFC_2014-15_Yearbook.pdf


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Moynihan pulled together for President Nixon warned in 1972 that continued closures of

Catholic schools would have grievous consequences for poor and lower middle-class families

in racially changing neighborhoods.

Recent academic research, like the 2014 book Lost Classroom, Lost Community by two

professors at the University of Notre Dame, has confirmed that Catholic schools help stabilize

their communities. When President Bush asked me to help organize the 2008 White House

summit on inner-city faith-based schooling, he characterized the situation as a crisis.

Less than a decade later, Catholic schools are budding for a renaissance. The roller-coaster ride

that Catholic education has taken over 50 years is well illustrated by Our Lady Queen of

Angels, the school in East Harlem that Pope Francisrecently visited.

When that facility opened its doors in 1892 it served mostly middle-class German families;

today 69% of its students are Hispanic, 22% are African-American, and nearly all are low-

income. When the church next door was closed in 2007, the school nearly shut down. But the

Partnership for Inner-city Education brought it back to life.

Faith-based schooling suddenly has a new cast of saints: the entrepreneurs who know that

competition is the best route to success, and the donors who are willing to share their wealth

with schools that improve lives. Catholics who are suspicious of Americas enterprising culture

ought to take a look.

Mr. Zinsmeister is editor of Catholic School Renaissance, by Andy Smarick and Kelly

Robson, out last month from the Philanthropy Roundtable.

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By posting a commentyou are accepting our commenting rulesand terms of use,and you agree to the publicdisplay of your profile, including your real name, and your commenting history.

William Smoak

I am very gratified to see this. I am not Catholic but have noted the number and growth of Catholic

schools in my area. All are highly respected. I see this as the tip of an iceberg composed of those

who have given up on public education. Our public schools are encumbered by huge bureaucracies

that are made up of people who have never taught in a classroom. They sit around and

micromanage teachers and curriculum. When I was in elementary school we learned to read with

Dick and Jane (OK, I'm old). It worked fine. Virtually everyone became a good reader. The same

simple approach would work fine now. Maybe we could change the names of the characters

to Devante and Juanita, the dog to Spuds , that should take care of the need for inclusiveness.

Anything is better than changing the study plan every few years.

I am hopeful this trend will continue.

Octavio Lima

As a product of Catholic education myself these stories actually warm my heart.

STEVEN SALLWASSER

When are we going to have separation of church and state. The state forces those without

resources to send their children to public schools where they are indoctrinated and forced to

swallow the belief that there is no God. That it was by sheer coincidence that the world came into

being. We need school vouchers and we need them now.

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