Catholic Schools: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

Trends in Catholic School Minority Enrollment and Higher Education Entrance Over the Recession

“…The first American Catholic schools were started to educate Catholic youth away from Protestant influences (Buetow, 1970;Hunt, 2005). Separate education continued into the modern age because public education was secular in principle but not in practice (Hunt, 2005;Moreau, 1997).…”

“…The first American Catholic schools were started to educate Catholic youth away from Protestant influences (Buetow, 1970;Hunt, 2005). Separate education continued into the modern age because public education was secular in principle but not in practice (Hunt, 2005;Moreau, 1997). Into the early twentieth century, public schools used anti-Catholic texts, and Catholic values were publicly accused of being harmful to education (Brinig & Garnett, 2014;Hunt, 2005;Moreau, 1997).…”

“…Separate education continued into the modern age because public education was secular in principle but not in practice (Hunt, 2005;Moreau, 1997). Into the early twentieth century, public schools used anti-Catholic texts, and Catholic values were publicly accused of being harmful to education (Brinig & Garnett, 2014;Hunt, 2005;Moreau, 1997). In turn, poorer dioceses saw public education as hazardous, and many decreed separate education as necessary to protecting the faith of vulnerable immigrant children (Buetow, 1970;Schmandt, 1978).…”

“…Catholic schools educated those who had the fewest educational options, rather than the elite or general population. The faculty were almost entirely unpaid nuns and clergy who focused on preparing students for Catholic universities or vocations (Buetow, 1970;Hunt, 2005;McLellan, 2000). Catholic education was considered so drastically different from the mainstream that many people felt it was a national threat, with nativists even attempting to outlaw Catholic schools in 1925 (Carper & Hunt, 2007;Hunt, 2005;Moreau, 1997).…”

“…During this same time period, the White Catholic population began vacating urban city-centers. The evacuating White Catholic population would go on to establish new churches and schools in the suburbs, and cease supporting their former parishes (Hunt, 2005). As a result, urban city-center parishes received less funding to support local Catholic schools, and the shrinking group of parishioners had less direct support to provide to these same schools.…”