The Catholic School Revival

The Catholic School Revival - WSJ
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The Catholic School Revival

Religious education is borrowing lessonsand leadersfrom
successful charters.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-catholic-school-revival-1448573850[12/3/2015 1:18:46 AM]
Cardinal Timothy Dolan and Pope Francis visit Our Lady Queen of Angels School in New York, Sept. 25.
PHOTO: TONY GENTILE/ASSOCIATED PRESS
By
KARL ZINSMEISTER
Nov. 26, 2015 4:37 p.m. ET
60
COMMENTS
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
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
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 Francis recently 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 lowincome. 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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Newest
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
thatare made up of people who have never taught in a classroom. They sit around and
micromanageteachers 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 namesof the characters
toDevante and Juanita, the dog toSpuds, 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.

5 days ago
Octavio Lima
As a product of Catholic education myself these stories actually warm my heart.

5 days ago
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.
5 days ago
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Nikkei 19948.47 0.05%U.S. 10 Yr

-1/32 Yield 2.185%Yen 123.46 0.17%

POLITICS & IDEAS

Making Our Roads

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