My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
Going back to school after summer vacation was always a difficult time of the year for me. I spent many years in the classroom: elementary school, high school, college and seminary, but also masters and doctoral degree programs. Somehow, beginning the academic year in September always was a bit foreboding, and although I enjoyed education, the anxiety that came with going back to school was always there. As the new school year approaches, my hope is that the students in our Catholic elementary schools and high schools will not feel that anxiety and will know that they have our support and encouragement.
The Catholic schools in Brooklyn and Queens are tremendous assets for the teaching of the Catholic faith and for serving our communities, which in many ways are educationally challenged. For the last three years, however, we have been involved in school consolidations. Decisions about the future of schools are never easy to make and even more difficult to implement. Unfortunately, some misunderstand why consolidations occur. It is because schools must have a sufficient enrollment of students who can pay tuition, even if the schools have subsidies from various diocesan programs. A school with too few students can never be adequately subsidized, and that is the situation we are facing in many places in our Diocese. At the end of the last school year, two schools closed, St. Charles Borromeo in Brooklyn Heights and Presentation School in Jamaica, because of declining enrollment. At St. Charles Borromeo, a fire made relocation of the school impossible. My hope is that we have stabilized our network of Catholic schools, yet all is determined by enrollment.
Permit me at this time to take this opportunity to thank our parents, their children, our administrators and most of all, our teachers, who make Catholic education possible. In many ways though, our network of Catholic schools depends on voluntary effort and self-sacrifice by the parents, administrators and teachers, as well as parishes which support schools. Our pastors deserve a lot of credit for trying to sustain Catholic schools, sometimes in the face of very difficult financial decisions, but I am convinced, as are my brother bishops, that it is all worth it.
There is nothing that can compare to a faith-centered Catholic education, which gives value and quality. When we look at the quality of Catholic education certain facts are indisputable. Elsewhere in this Back to School Issue of The Tablet, you will read that eighth- and fourth-grade students in Brooklyn and Queens parochial schools met or exceeded learning standards for English language arts and mathematics at a higher percentage this year than last in tests administered last spring by the State Department of Education. The test scores also showed that the percentages achieved by the local Catholic schools outpaced those recorded by all schools across the State and in the City, according to an analysis by our Office of Catholic School Support Services.
In the 2006 to 2007 comparison for the parochial schools, 63.9 percent of eighth graders met or exceeded the learning standards in English language arts, an increase of four percent, and 60.2 did so in math, a 4.9 percent increase. Statewide results reported by the State Education Department showed that 57.1 percent of eighth-grade students met or exceeded the English language arts standard and 58.8 did likewise in math. In the City, the percentages were 41.8 in English language arts and 45.6 in math.
Among fourth graders, 72.5 percent of parochial schoolers met or exceeded the English language arts standards, an increase of about one percent, and in math it was 80.2 percent, a 1.9 percent jump. The State percentages were 68 and 80 percent respectively and in the City 56 and 74.1 percent.
The percentage of parochial school students who do not meet State learning standards dropped in both subjects areas and for both grades, as a news article in the Back to School section reports. Students took the English language arts test in January and the math exam in March, and the State Education Department released its English language arts figures in May and the math results in June. The analysis by the Catholic School Support Services Office was completed this month. In regard to how valuable our education is, recently I asked the Office of the Superintendent to establish a Catholic identity/evaluation program in order to evaluate the Catholic identity of our schools. To retain Catholic identity is a constant challenge for many reasons. The smaller number of religious Sisters and Brothers in the schools and reliance on the wonderful and competent lay teachers challenges us to make sure that they are properly supported and prepared to hand over the content and practice of our Catholic faith. In most part, our Catholic schools are successful in retaining Catholic identity, but at the same time there is always room for improvement. Unless we set standards and give ourselves benchmarks on which we can evaluate ourselves, the Catholic identity of our schools will be lost. I am very pleased with the program developed by the Office of the Superintendent.
Another innovation in our schools is the developing of a governing structure that strengthens their ability to exist well into the future. Just over half have implemented a type of governance whereby lay Catholics, especially school alumni, and others can be involved in the governance of our schools. This is even multiplied where regional schools have been developed with regional governing boards. This is an innovation that is important today because we must give Catholic parents responsibility for the schools that educate their children. The Church has always said that the primary responsibility for educating children lies with the parents and the Church structure is there to assist them. I believe the new governance structure really backs up this educational concept.
Financing our schools is ever more a challenge. The cost of education, especially for salaries and fringe benefits, particularly in health care, creates a constant challenge to our schools and parishes. Last year, the Diocese was able to offer scholarships to over 5,000 students. During the coming year we hope to raise that to 7,500 students. The long-term commitment to scholarships, which lower the cost of education for those who need it most, demands, however, a new type of funding. We have been planning an educational endowment for scholarships, and in the future we will announce the beginning of our campaign for that endowment.
As we return to school this year, we always are "putting out into the deep." No student knows what the academic year will bring; it is kind of a mystery and one that is full of anxiety. Join me in praying for our Catholic schools in our Diocese so that they will be maintained as the primary instrument in the pastoral care and evangelization of our Catholic people.
