Catholic Education
Q. How
are the Catholic schools doing these days? Are the nuns still strict, and do
most people believe they still deliver a quality educational experience?
Yes, and yes. For the most part, Catholic schools are thriving in the
United States, with costs borne by parental tuition with some supplementation
from Catholic voluntary fund-raising efforts. Catholic grade schools are
generally owned and operated by local parishes, and the high schools are run by
the diocese.
According to U.S. Department of Education figures, the United
States had 7,498 Catholic schools in 2006-07, including 6,288 elementary
schools and 1,210 secondary schools. In total there were 2,320,651 students,
including 1,682,412 students in the elementary/middle schools and 638,239 in
high schools.
While most are doing well, there
are many Catholic schools in the inner cities which are struggling to keep
their doors open, with shrinking student populations and increasingly
tough-to-teach enrollees from foreign countries and from households that move
around a lot. They are requiring increasing amounts of subsidies from donors
and can rely less and less on parental contributions.
In most communities, Catholic grade schools generally spend less and
operate smaller schools than their public counterparts, with approximately the
same class sizes as public schools. Teachers in Catholic schools generally make
less money than in public schools, but ironically, standardized test scores are
almost always higher in the Catholic schools than in their neighboring public
schools.
Catholic schools are about religious ministry as well as providing education.
They include a full curriculum in secular subjects as well as Catholic
education. That means the students participate in the sacraments of the
Catholic Church, as they study and age, and focus more on religion and theology
than most other schools, including the many private secular schools.
You don't have
to be Catholic to attend a Catholic school, although most Catholic schools
require non-Catholic students to take Catholic religion classes.
In many Muslim
parts of the world, Catholic schools used to provide top-quality education,
better than the locally-provided public schools, but in many areas, it is now
against the law to run a Catholic school in those places. In Canada,
there are tax-funded Catholic schools, called "separate schools,"
dating back in that nation's history. Because of pressure from
special-interest groups, laws were passed in the late 1990s that some believe
watered down the religious aspects of Catholic schools in Canada, but they are
still operating and often at public expense.
In New Zealand, Catholic schools are called "integrated schools"
because the teachers' salaries and learning materials are tax-funded, but the
actual school property is not.
In England and
Wales, Catholic schools are either independent, with tuition totally paid by
parents, or funded by a combination of taxes and Catholic funds. In Scotland,
there are many Catholic schools all fully funded by taxpayers, and nearly half
of the children in Northern Ireland are educated in Catholic-managed schools.
The United
States had 7,498 Catholic schools in 2006-07, including 6,288 elementary
schools and 1,210 secondary schools. In total there were 2,320,651 students,
including 1,682,412 students in the elementary/middle schools and 638,239 in
high schools.
Homework: For
more information, see the National Catholic Educational Association.
Also see
how Catholic education compares statistically to other forms of education on
this link from the Center
for Education Reform. Many of the statistics are from the National Center
on Education Statistics, which publishes a yearly digest.
http://www.edreform.com/index.cfm?fuseAction=section&pSectionID=15&cSectionID=97