Back to Exponent Menu Printer Friendly Page   EDITORIAL Friday, March 26, 2004 When Catholic schools close, parents must shoulder some of the blame We have all heard the phrase “speaking truth to power.” What one diocesan pastor did last week, upon announcing the closing of the parish school at the end of this current school year, was speak truth to parents. When a Catholic school closes in whatever locale, those in the community are often quick to place blame on a diocese or a principal or a pastor. What this pastor did was to acknowledge in a forthright fashion that, amid a variety of complex factors, such closings often come down to a harsh reality: not enough Catholic parents in a given parish value a Catholic education for their child. Certainly shifting demographics play a role in most of these closings. As Catholic families move to the suburbs, they are frequently succeeded in city neighborhoods by persons of other faith groups, diminishing the available pool of Catholic students. Another factor involves the proximity to some Catholic schools of high-quality public education programs, most of which offer a broad array of electives which under-funded Catholic schools cannot always match. The increasing cost of tuition plays a part as well in the decline of the available student population, although tuition at Catholic elementary and high schools in the Diocese of Youngstown remains startlingly modest compared to what Catholic parents pay in other dioceses in Ohio and across the nation. All of these factors are real. The core reality, however, is that the closing of most Catholic schools must be placed squarely on the shoulders of Catholic parents. Not some Catholic parents, certainly. Not the Catholic parents who work extra jobs to pay tuition, volunteer to help at fund-raising events, show up for every school event and donate generously to the Sunday collection which funds that school (tuition never pays more than a portion of the per-pupil cost at any Catholic school, a fact of life most Catholics seem blissfully unaware of). Nor can we blame the parents whose own children have graduated from Catholic schools but who now support a new generation of students – their grandchildren and complete strangers as well – with tuition assistance, school endowment donations, and other forms of help. No, the Catholic parents who must shoulder some of the blame when a Catholic school closes are those who never participate in school events, never come to church with or without their children, never participate in any parish events if they do participate in school events, never demonstrate any understanding of the importance of faith in the lives of their children, never exhibit any comprehension of why a Catholic education is, by definition and by intent, radically different from the education available in even the finest of public school classrooms. These are the parents, an unfortunate percentage of whom inhabit a good many of our Catholic parishes across this country, who clearly do not live as if they believe a Catholic education will make a huge difference in the life of their child or children. As the above-mentioned pastor put it so succinctly in his letter to parents upon the closing of their school, a missive which detailed a list of impressive accomplishments in the past year, “the one area we apparently were not successful in was communicating to parents with school age children in our parish the importance for their children to be in a Catholic setting.” Amen to that. The priest has highlighted a critical issue that must be addressed, not only by Catholic school officials but by the next generation of Catholic parents, if the school system bequeathed to them by their grandparents and parents is to remain vibrant in this or any other American diocese. — Lou Jacquet/Editor   Back to Exponent Menu Printer Friendly Page   Other Articles of 2004   Democrats’ consideration of modified abortion stance welcome   Coach’s dismissal gives some insight into America’s psyche   Arafat’s death an opening, but Middle East peace remains elusive   The presidential campaign: ‘A pox on both their houses’?   150,000 and more put aside scandals, embrace beacon of hope   When Catholic schools close, parents must shoulder some of the blame   Jews, Christians respect one another across great divide of faith   Latest ‘civil war’ pits defenders of marriage against courts   Civility in short supply as nation faces a barroom brawl   Catholic publications ‘speak truth to power’ nationwide, up north   Past Articles From 2003