Federal Judiciary

Reviving the Catholic Schools -- By: Robert Costa

New York -- ?When the invitation first came in to come to the Manhattan Institute, being new in this great city, I didn?t know what it was,? confided Archbishop Timothy Dolan, in his opening remarks last week at the University Club, a few blocks from Saint Patrick?s Cathedral. ?I said to my secretary, I?d be much more inclined to accept an invitation from the martini institute.? After the chuckles subsided, the tall, broad-shouldered 60-year-old prelate went on with his remarks, in his warm St. Louis twang.

It presumably did not take Dolan long to learn that the Manhattan Institute has long been a champion of Catholic education, and has even supported public funding of Catholic schools. Dolan was at the luncheon -- dotted with the likes of the institute?s Sol Stern, investment banker Peter Flanigan (founder of a program to mentor and provide scholarships to poor kids), and the Wall Street Journal?s Bill McGurn -- to discuss his strategy for improving Catholic education in inner-city New York. The archbishop?s plan to reinvigorate the city?s underfunded and underpopulated Catholic schools, dubbed ?Pathways to Excellence,? is a multi-pronged -- and controversial -- approach. Some schools will be shut down, others consolidated, and  management will flow from the diocese, not the parish. Implementing such institutional changes, he admits, is a daunting challenge.

At my table, Stern, a Manhattan Institute senior fellow who specializes in education, and who calls announcements of Catholic-school closings ?melancholy annual rituals,? perked up his ears as Dolan began to detail his pedagogical hopes. Stern once chronicled in the Manhattan Institute?s City Journal that ?starting with renowned sociologist James Coleman?s 1982 report, studies galore have shown that Catholic schools do a better job of educating inner-city poor and minority children than do public schools with comparable student populations.? Catholic-school success, Stern reported, happened for a number of reasons, from focusing, ?laser-like, on a no-frills, core academic curriculum? to reinforcing ?teachers? classroom authority? to resisting ?pernicious progressive-education fads, such as whole-language reading instruction.?

Dolan firmly believes such methods will continue to yield results in the Big Apple. ?The test scores in our inner-city schools are higher than in the government schools,? Dolan says. ?The poorer the area, the better our test scores compare with the government schools.? With 35,000 students attending inner-city Catholic schools in New York -- 40 percent of them non-Catholic, 94 percent from minority backgrounds, and most living near the federal poverty line -- Dolan says it?s a blessing that 98 percent of the high-school seniors graduate, with 96 percent of them going on to college.

Not that he?s bragging. ?Two-thirds of my kids are in public schools,? Dolan says. ?So as a community leader, I want strong government schools and rejoice in the fact that they?re getting better. One of the reasons they?re getting better is because we have a strong private school system in the state of New York, the strongest part being our Catholic schools, which keep a monopoly from forming. We all know that a monopoly rarely works, is inefficient, and becomes bloated.?

Despite his schools? successes, ?we are in somewhat of a critical posture right now,? Dolan warns. He details the reasons for declining enrollment: smaller populations of school-age children in the post-baby-boom generations; rising costs; and the ?tsunami effect? of having an ever-diminishing cadre of nuns, priests, and brothers dedicating their lives to teaching. Those factors, he said, have led to poorer test scores, which, while still better than public-school numbers, have hoisted red flags.

?Some schools are going to have to close,? Dolan laments. If there is a cluster of struggling schools within, say, a twelve-block radius, ?it makes all the sense in the world to combine them into one, strong school.?

?Somebody somewhere has also got to ask the question whether the parochial model is the best and most realistic model,? Dolan argues. ?We need a communal embrace of the Catholic education apostolate. We need a shared responsibility for recruitment, maintenance, and subsidies for our schools. We need to get serious about regional models and intense in our collaborative initiatives.?

Bringing in ?quality principals? is another aspect of Dolan?s strategy. So are scholarships and partnerships with local New York colleges and universities. Improving schools? use of technology is crucial -- ?We?re kind of wondering if we can keep up with the bells and whistles of everywhere else,? he says, especially in math and science. Reaching out to New York?s growing Latino population, which is largely Catholic, is also crucial. Dolan bemoans the fact that only 4 percent of New York?s Latino children attend Catholic schools. To fix that, the Archdiocese has joined with the University of Notre Dame on a pilot project to increase Latino enrollment.

Charter schools, Dolan observes, are considered by some in the educational community to be the future -- and he admits that charter schools are a ?hot issue? in Catholic education circle. Last week, the New York State Senate voted to raise the state?s cap on charter schools from 200 to 460, though the legislation still faces hurdles in the state Assembly. Charter schools, Dolan reasons, may help in certain cities, but in New York, at least, Catholic schools must be adamant about staying energetic about their mission, purpose, and growth -- and not sending up ?a flare that we?re giving up.?

?We?ve spoken about parental rights from the beginning,? Dolan says. ?Competition is a darn good thing. I?m confident if we keep doing what we?re doing, the truth will set us free. Maybe there is something to this religious dimension of a school that enhances a pedagogical environment. If that?s the case, we don?t have anything to be afraid of.?

?Either we say, let?s do business as usual -- keep afloat, go on like this -- or we ask, are we going to get daring, creative, and bold?? That, Dolan asserted, is the question facing not just New York?s Archdiocese but Catholic schools around the country. To do business as usual in coming years, he says, is a ?hospice approach? that buys into the idea that Catholic schools are dying and the ?best thing we can do is prolong their death and make them as comfortable as possible.?

?I refuse to buy into the hospice mentality that has hypnotized Catholic leadership in our nation,? Dolan says, his heavy black cassock rustling. ?We must rediscover a sense of boldness. We have got to get dramatic, with fresh thinking, and dare our people to come through.?

With a little prayer, Dolan may find a way. And if he does, the Midwesterner will find himself the recipient of quite a few martini toasts, in Manhattan and beyond.

-- Robert Costa is the William F. Buckley Jr. Fellow at the National Review Institute.

Full post as published by Bench Memos - National Review Online on May 12, 2010 (boomark / email).