Religion & Law

Paul Moses discusses, here, Diane Ravitch's new book on education policy, and her observation that:

?Where charter schools are expanding, Catholic schools are dying,? Ms. Ravitch said. ?But charter schools can?t do the same things. The Catholic schools have a well-established record of being effective, and they?re being replaced by schools that have no track record.?

I have, as regular readers know, become a zombie-like fan of Catholic schools.  My own experience with our parish school is, I realize, not typical -- the place is amazing and thriving and (as my son's first Communion this past weekend reminded me) deeply Catholic.  Having said that, I am very troubled by what seems to me to be a waning commitment, on the part of many bishops (not mine!) to (meaningfully) Catholic schools, or to imagine that it is enough to convert / sell-off Catholic schools to charter-school operators who promise "values oriented" education.  Sure, there are all kinds of ways we might want to adjust the mid-20th-century model of parish schools -- to take account of changing demograhpics, to capitalize on administrative expertise and economies of scale, etc.  But, it is not -- in my opinion -- going to be enough for the Church, and Catholics, to hope that parents, Sunday mass, and CCD can take care of formation (to say nothing of evangelization!) in the coming years.