Catholic school crisis hurts all

An Archdiocese of Philadelphia blue-ribbon commission is expected to release its final report on the future of Catholic schooling in the five-county region on Friday. The plan will likely recommend closing and merging many elementary and high schools. Although this presents a particular challenge to Catholics, the impact will go well beyond them. These schools are a valuable community resource, and their sustainability should be of universal concern.

Like other schools, Catholic schools benefit not just those who attend them, but all the region's residents, by producing responsible, productive citizens. When the late William Fishman, a cofounder of the company that became Aramark, was asked why a Jewish man would devote so much of his time to the Catholic schools, he said it was a matter of "enlightened self-interest": The products of these schools would be the employees of his and other Philadelphia companies.

We are all familiar by now with the plight of Catholic schools in Philadelphia and other large cities. For a variety of reasons, the Delaware Valley's Catholic school enrollment has declined from more than 200,000 to about 60,000, and the future of the remaining schools is in doubt.

Providing for the continued effectiveness of these schools, especially the urban ones, was the charge given to the archdiocesan commission. Its task should also concern everyone who cares about maintaining the high quality of life in our region, reducing educational inequality, ending the cycle of poverty, and turning around America's inner cities. There is much evidence that Catholic schools can play an important role in doing that.

Creative approaches could be the way forward. Over the last few decades, for example, Jesuit educators have developed the innovative model of the Nativity middle schools and Cristo Rey high schools. Schools based on these models have recently opened or been reestablished in Philadelphia. This fall, more than 100 city freshmen will enter a new Catholic high school in which each student will work for a nearby employer, such as a law firm or bank, one day a week. The income generated will help offset the cost of the students' education, and the real-life work experience will be of enormous value to the students in applying to colleges and pursuing careers.

In 1993, Notre Dame University began a national movement to recruit talented college graduates to work in Catholic schools under its Alliance for Catholic Education program. Now 16 universities, including St. Joseph's here in Philadelphia, are placing teaching fellows in underserved Catholic schools. The fellowships are fostering a renewed commitment to urban education among a new generation.

St. Joseph's also recently established the Educational Leadership Institute, which focuses on the leadership needs of both public and nonpublic schools, as well as the Center for Catholic Urban Education, which focuses on the sustainability of Catholic schools in inner-city Philadelphia and Camden.

While these efforts are noteworthy, they are unfortunately dwarfed by the magnitude of the crisis in Catholic education. That's why the voucher program that was under consideration in Harrisburg before the new year held such promise. It would have gone a long way toward addressing the sustainability and quality of both public and nonpublic education in cities like Philadelphia and Chester.

As long as vouchers are not funded from the same sources as public schools, and are awarded based on economic need, they are not likely to have a negative impact on public schools. And they would offer more of our children's first teachers - their parents - the educational choices that are already available to the more affluent among us.

We should do whatever we can to ensure the sustainability of all our effective schools, including our Catholic schools - if for no other reason than it is in our own "enlightened self-interest" to do so.