A Lifeline for Minorities, Catholic Schools Retrench

[elleng]

Sonia Sotomayor lives in Washington, but she has never forgotten her roots in the Bronx. On a drizzly March afternoon, she returned to Blessed Sacrament School, where she began her celebrated, if improbable journey from her South Bronx childhood to the Supreme Court. But instead of a joyous reunion, it was more of a valedictory for her and the children – the school is closing for good.

“I’m really upset,” Justice Sotomayor told a fourth-grade class. “It’s hard to say goodbye. I won’t tell you it’s easy. I won’t lie to you.”

The children drew close and peppered her with questions: Why is the archdiocese closing the school? Doesn’t it know their parents worked hard? Why couldn’t it come up with the money? One girl, crying, got up and slumped into Justice Sotomayor’s embrace. The justice, her voice steady and reassuring, reminded the children to cherish the good times and move confidently ahead. But later, she, too, revealed her pain.

“The worst thing is, these kids could lose their faith in the adults around them,” she said in an interview inside her old fifth-grade classroom. “Children need to feel secure. This makes it worse. These kids are going to carry this trauma with them for the rest of their lives.”

Justice Sotomayor’s emotions are shared by a generation of accomplished Latino and black professionals and public servants who went from humble roots to successful careers thanks to Catholic schools. But they fear that a springboard that has helped numerous poor and working-class minority students achieve rewarding lives is eroding as Catholic schools close their doors in the face of extraordinary financial challenges and demographic shifts.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/21/nyregion/as-archdioceses-schools-retrench-worries-grow-for-a-building-block-for-minority-students.html?pagewanted=all

[duffyduff]

1. I am supposed to care if they close or not?

The reason they have been closing up over the decades is because Catholics have been assimilated into the larger society.

I am far more concerned about the war waged on public education than some handwringing by the Beltway that their favorite private schools are shuttering.

These schools also can't compete with charter scams.

[elleng]

3. Catholic schools provide education to everyone who needs it,

including/especially disadvantaged urban non-Catholics who can't obtain decent educations at the public schools which SHOULD provide everyone with good educations, but which keep failing more and more in doing so.

[duffyduff]

4. No, they don't.

They don't have to take all students, unlike public.

I am sick of articles like this that handwring over schools that elitist snobs send their kids, while papers like the NYT peddle policies that would destroy an underpinning of democracy, public education.

Your post is total bullshit.

[elleng]

6. They don't HAVE to take all students,

but they do take MANY, and provide better education than many public schools do these days.

Politics has destroyed the underpinning of democracy, public education, and some corporations have sought to benefit from that.

Your post is wrong and rude.

[knitter4democracy]

10. I've taught in Catholic schools. Yes, they do.

They do because they need the money and often due to political reasons (parents are friends with the bishop, etc.). I've never seen a Catholic school turn anyone away.

[savebigbird]

7. I suggest you read some of the threads around here.

I think you'll realize that many of us would rather not take the escapist route when it comes to public education. We want to solve problems, not run away from them.

I know a great deal about Catholic education, and quality of education between Catholic schools varies just as widely as it does between public schools.

[elleng]

9. I'd rather not read complaints of complainers. I know something about Catholic education and schools

I attended public schools through college, and assumed my daughters would, too. Unfortunately it was not possible to find decent public schools in the District of Columbia where we lived, and one daughter needed special attention to her 'learning differences,' so both of our daughters attended Catholic schools in/around DC. We did not escape, we stayed where we lived; we solved a problem.

Surely quality of education varies among Catholic schools, as it does among public schools. We were fortunate to be able to find good schools for our family.

[savebigbird]

12. Complainers?

It sounds as if you've brought judgement upon a large group of people without first reading what they have to say. Also, you did, by definition, escape the D.C. public schools. I have no problem with that. However, making broad, sweeping generalizations about all public schools in general is in poor form and invalid at best.

[JustAnotherGen]

2. My husband

And his older siblings went there when they lived in the US (dad brought their family here for 8 years in the 70s). It was the right place for immigrants back then - they were integrating Italian, French, Portuguese, and Spanish speakers into the class long before everyone else.

[duffyduff]

5. There was a time when those schools had a purpose, but that day is gone

Now you have snobs that will never send their kids to those "shitty" public schools and mix with the inferiors and they are crying crocodile tears the traditional private schools are closing.

Well, that happens. Unfortunately, now a worse animal has come along, charter schools, which seeks to destroy all education in this country.

[JustAnotherGen]

8. Especially can I say it

The Christian (re-segregation) schools in the a South.

[proud2BlibKansan]

11. And if the RCC hadn't taken a sharp turn to the right while ignoring pedophile priests,

they wouldn't have lost members and wouldn't be looking at these extraordinary financial challenges.

I went to Catholic school. My dad spent half his career teaching in a Catholic school. I began my career as a teacher in Catholic schools. And seeing what has happened to the RCC makes me incredibly sad. But the church has brought this upon itself. It's a classic case of no longer meeting the needs of its members.