Debates revolving around education are always contentious. This issue, unlike other high-profile issues of our time, induces strong emotional responses. For some reason, parents’ choices are solely limited to either pro-school choice, pro-teacher, pro-public schools or pro-charter schools. What this narrow and emotional debate leaves out is the role that religious schools, Catholic schools in particular, play in our society.
Full disclosure: I was educated in Catholic schools in New York and Florida for 12 years. While I cannot attest to the deficiencies or benefits of public schools, I can personally attest to the overwhelming benefits of a Catholic education.
For Catholic-school graduates, the conversation about schooling focuses on the issues angsty teenagers with too much time on their hands complain about: the plaid school uniforms, the family planning conversations, that one kid who was a little too religious and over-crowded school masses. What is lost in this complaining is the social capital Catholic schools bring to a community.
Margaret Brinig, co-author of “Lost Classroom, Lost Community: Catholic Schools’ Importance in Urban America,” describes the effects that disappearing Catholic schools — not just in urban areas but in suburban areas as well — have on the community in an interview with National Review magazine.
Research shows that “serious crime declined 25 percent citywide but only 17 percent in police beats that lost Catholic schools.” When these schools leave their communities, the institutions aren’t the only things that disappear. A “broken window” chain of events occur after the school’s closing. The members of the community lose an establishment that brought them together. Children no longer have a place of education that holds them to high educational and personal standards. Families in many cases must leave their communities to find better schools. Crime increases and the social cohesion of the community falls apart.
Having a morally grounding and personally stabilizing institution such as a Catholic school is instrumental to the stability of a community. While the effects of disappearing schools are disastrous, the effects of successful Catholic schools can only be described as miraculous. Brinig notes that “the research on Catholic schools finds that they succeed academically because the members of the school community — pastors, principals, teachers, parents, students — trust each other and hold each other to high expectations.”
While Catholic schools do add value, they can also be improved. Brinig challenges religious school leaders to do three things: “First, focus on leadership... Second, recruit Latinos. In the United States, nearly 70 percent of practicing Catholics under the age of 35 are Latino, but only 3 percent of Latino families send their kids to Catholic schools. Third, to echo Saint John Paul II: ‘Be not afraid.’ The game is not up. The future of Catholic schools won’t look like the past, but it can be a hopeful future.”
In our education-related debates, we must move beyond taking pro-private or pro-public school sides. Even the proponents of charter schools discount the value and importance religious schools have on the community.
Some may complain about the role of religion in education. This in and of itself is a dubious critique. Catholic schools are not limited to only the Catholic flock. Many non-Catholic Christians and non-Christians attend Catholic schools. It’s incorrect to assume that Catholic schools only serve religious purposes. The religion-in-the-classroom squabbles distract us from the importance of religious schools.
What communities need, poorer communities especially, is an institution founded on a desire to help others. Catholic schools assist in the education of thousands of schools each year. The schools link and unite neighborhoods and focus everyone’s attention on hope, love and charity. And these schools truly make a difference in a young student’s life.
Catholic schools matter. Which is good, because right now, plaid is in.
Michael Beato is a UF economics junior. His column appears on Thursdays.
[A version of this story ran on page 6 on 2/5/2015 under the headline “In education debate, Catholic schools win"]
