Catholic parochial K-12 education has been decimated in recent decades by the "perfect storm" of a pedophile crisis in the church, rapidly rising school taxes, and a culture that disdains religious people and beliefs. In my home of Western Pennsylvania, we have gone from about a fourth of all K-12 students attending Catholic parochial schools to something on the order of 5%. Indeed, it is difficult to put a number on it because the schools themselves continue to "drop like flies." Often, some number of Catholic grade schools consolidate and re-name themselves, year after year, until we have one school serving an entire region...and still attendance is dropping year over year.
But concurrently with this development there is a counter-phenomenon going on.
As I look at the various teams competing in the state high school basketball championships, I cannot miss the presence of high schools with names like, Central Catholic, Erie Cathedral Prep, North Catholic, Greensburg Central Catholic, Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, and so on. The same is true, to a slightly lesser extent for the football playoffs.
These surviving Catholic high schools are quite pricey and derive no significant state funding, so the tuitions - to the extent they are paid - are quite a financial burden to the parents. They are ALL academically superior to the public schools, boasting higher average SAT/ACT scores, more grads going on to college, more national merit scholarship finalists, and so on.
In athletic circles, these schools are scorned by the public schools for "recruiting" athletes to pump up their athletic teams in competition. And in fact there is no actual requirement that the students (1) be Catholic, or (2) live in any particular school district. And indeed, many of the student-athletes are beneficiaries of reduced or even waived tuition, based on their individual family situations. Not surprisingly, many competing coaches are pushing the state athletic organization to force these Catholic schools out of the brackets that the public schools play in, because their rules give them an unfair advantage. Boo freakin' who.
As a closet racist, I perceive that a large number of the beneficiaries of this whole situation are African American students who would otherwise be attending failing neighborhood schools, and whose prospects improve dramatically when playing BB or FB for conspicuously successful parochial schools. If these teams were forced to play "in their own league" because of their advantages, the incentive for these African Americans to go there would be greatly diminished. Who cares if your team wins the "Catholic League"?
Some say the current system sucks, but it does have its benefits, for a lot of people.
Does this situation occur in other geographic parts of the U.S.?
But concurrently with this development there is a counter-phenomenon going on.
As I look at the various teams competing in the state high school basketball championships, I cannot miss the presence of high schools with names like, Central Catholic, Erie Cathedral Prep, North Catholic, Greensburg Central Catholic, Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, and so on. The same is true, to a slightly lesser extent for the football playoffs.
These surviving Catholic high schools are quite pricey and derive no significant state funding, so the tuitions - to the extent they are paid - are quite a financial burden to the parents. They are ALL academically superior to the public schools, boasting higher average SAT/ACT scores, more grads going on to college, more national merit scholarship finalists, and so on.
In athletic circles, these schools are scorned by the public schools for "recruiting" athletes to pump up their athletic teams in competition. And in fact there is no actual requirement that the students (1) be Catholic, or (2) live in any particular school district. And indeed, many of the student-athletes are beneficiaries of reduced or even waived tuition, based on their individual family situations. Not surprisingly, many competing coaches are pushing the state athletic organization to force these Catholic schools out of the brackets that the public schools play in, because their rules give them an unfair advantage. Boo freakin' who.
As a closet racist, I perceive that a large number of the beneficiaries of this whole situation are African American students who would otherwise be attending failing neighborhood schools, and whose prospects improve dramatically when playing BB or FB for conspicuously successful parochial schools. If these teams were forced to play "in their own league" because of their advantages, the incentive for these African Americans to go there would be greatly diminished. Who cares if your team wins the "Catholic League"?
Some say the current system sucks, but it does have its benefits, for a lot of people.
Does this situation occur in other geographic parts of the U.S.?
