Best Education Bet May Be Catholic

A few weeks past, I summarized the problems plaguing America’s public schools, including administrative bloat, drastically lowered academic and disciplinary standards, an addiction to educational fads and the in-leaking of left-wing ideology.

Not surprisingly, my mail has surged, including a disproportionate number of letters from public school teachers, most of whom were supportive. Writes one, who asks not to be identified: “Thanks for saying what we can’t say except in private, to one another.”

Some respondents criticized what they perceived as a blanket indictment of public education. Indeed, my criticisms are not applicable to each and every public school in the United States, but the exceptions are few and far between. In general, the best public schools are in small systems that serve small communities. Their size has allowed these schools to remain more accountable and responsive to their constituents. As such, they spend taxpayer money more wisely, and have eschewed the sort of nouveau “reforms” that have been the bane of most larger systems.

In that same column, I had better things to say about private schools, but expressed certain reservations, which don’t merit repeating.

So what’s a concerned parent to do? All things considered, I’d have to say that the best education in America today is being provided in Catholic schools. In the typical Catholic school, students receive a traditional education that is much like what public education was like in the 1950s, when student achievement was at an all-time high. Academic and behavioral expectations are high, grades are not artificially inflated and classrooms are adequately disciplined.

The performance of students in Catholic elementary and high schools on standardized achievement tests consistently exceeds the performance of public school students, even when student characteristics and family background are controlled. Catholic school students spend more time on homework than their public school counterparts. The dropout rate in Catholic high schools is less than one-fourth the rate of public schools and absenteeism is perceived as a far less serious problem.

Catholic schools have even fewer administrators per student than private schools; therefore, an even greater percentage of their educational dollar goes into the classroom, where it belongs.

Elitism, a nagging aspect of most private schools, is not a factor in Catholic schools. One of Catholic education’s missions is to provide quality education to children from all religious backgrounds, even non-Christian. In addition, Catholic schools traditionally have enrolled significant numbers of minority students as well as students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.

Finally, Catholic schools are far more affordable than most private ones, and scholarship assistance for needy students is available. (Not only is tuition in the typical Catholic school much less than that of the average private school, but Catholic school parents are not expected to ante up with periodic “donations.”)

For more information on Catholic schools, I highly recommend “Catholic Schools Make a Difference: Twenty-Five Years of Research,” by John J. Convey. Copies can be obtained by sending a check or money order for $18.00 (includes postage and handling) to the publication’s office of the National Catholic Education Association, 1077 30th Street, NW, Suite 100, Washington, D.C. 20007-3852.