Church is at the center of voucher debate: would political win put church at odds with common good? - the students left behind in the public schools present a moral issue for the Catholic church - Catholic Education

National Catholic Reporter, March 28, 1997 by John Allen

The problems of inner-city education are staggering: dilapidated facilities, crowded classrooms, demoralized teachers, outdated textbooks and communities ravaged by crime and drugs.

America's school finance system exacerbates the problem. Despite the best efforts of state legislatures and courts to mandate some degree of equalization in funding, wide disparities still exist between the resources in urban and suburban districts. While suburban schools prosper from a strong local tax base, urban schools decline. It's a cycle that has many poor families understandably desperate for alternatives.

None of this is to suggest that inner-city education is uniformly poor. There are remarkable success stories -- Harlem's Central Park East schools, for example, which have been the subject of intense national study. Decades of research, however, have settled on one sobering conclusion: As long as urban schools lack the resources available to their suburban counterparts, success will remain a heroic exception rather than the norm.

The issue is money

"If money is not the issue, I'd like to know why the rich are spending so much on their suburban school systems," said Jonathan Kozol, who has written extensively on the condition of urban public schools. "In the New York area, the per-pupil expenses are $6,000 in the Bronx, but $16,000 in Great Neck, Long Island. They spend that much because, even allowing for the inevitable inefficiencies in any large system, you get what you pay for."

Given the terrible condition of inner-city public schools, many poor families look to Catholic alternatives. All the evidence suggests they're wise to do so. Studies differ on how to explain the higher test scores and greater levels of parental satisfaction associated with inner-city Catholic schools, but virtually everyone concedes that, for whatever reason, urban Catholic schools often provide a better education for poor children.

Why do Catholic schools succeed? A host of factors is involved: size, with Catholic elementary schools serving populations of 200-400, while public schools routinely serve over 1,000; selectivity, as Catholic schools can pick and choose their students, while public ones have to take everyone; the greater academic rigor of many Catholic schools; parental involvement; and the spirit of community that is part of the Catholic belief system.

"You have to taste it to know the tremendous difference our schools make," said Sister of Notre Dame Phyllis Cook, principal of St. Columbkille's Elementary School in South-Central Los Angeles.

However one accounts for it, the argument that inner-city children are often better educated, safer and more cared for in Catholic schools seems convincing. This argument holds, of course, as long as the frame of reference is the inner city. In America's suburbs, well-funded public school systems perform every bit as well, and in some cases better, than the private competition.

"In urban areas, it's clear that kids in Catholic schools do better than in the public schools. The more affluent the public school is, the better it does," said Leonard DeFiore, president of the National Catholic Educational Association.