Staff Editorial: School's out forever; Philly loses two Catholic high schools to budget woes

On Friday, Oct. 9, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia announced the closing of two Catholic high schools. In June 2010, Cardinal Dougherty High School and Northeast Catholic High School for Boys will close their doors after decades of declining student populations. Local students and their parents are upset, particularly because the same Archdiocese that has decided to close Cardinal Dougherty and Northeast Catholic is also planning to open a new, $65 million state-of-the-art high school in Royersford this fall.

Apparently the value of "men and women with and for others" doesn't hold its own against budget concerns and socioeconomic status.

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia has defended its decisions against a rising outcry of criticism from local parents who believe that money, rather than Catholic values, lie at the heart of the high schools' closings. In an interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer, Bishop Joseph P. McFadden, who oversees Catholic education, said, "Our hope is that Catholic secondary education will be available in every area of the diocese and will be accessible."

Accessibility is a multifaceted concept, however, and one that the Archdiocese must examine carefully as it attempts to move forward from its heyday of the 1950s and 1960s. McFadden has claimed that students from Cardinal Dougherty and Northeast Catholic will be placed in nearby Catholic high schools. Transferring to another high school might look fine on paper, but the extra time and cost it takes to transport students will be an increased challenge for already burdened parents.

While the Archdiocese has addressed one facet of the issue of accessibility regarding a Catholic secondary education, it remains to be seen whether Church leaders will help ease the financial burden of ever-increasing tuition. Catholic students in Philadelphia will pay $5,100 this year in tuition costs-that's a steep price for a city whose median household income is roughly $35,000 per year.

If the Archdiocese wants to truly help Philadelphia students with a Catholic education, it should reallocate its funds toward consolidating and improving city high schools. Combining poorly attended inner-city Catholic schools that are near one another would cut down administrative costs while still providing an accessible education to those who need it most.

The decision to close two high schools with poor enrollment while funding a $65 million super-school in the suburbs may be fiscally understandable, but it sends the wrong message to an already abandoned population.

Taking Catholic schools out of urban areas and building them in suburbs removes Catholic education from poorer students and puts it in the hands of wealthier suburban kids. From the standpoint of educating individuals in Christian attitudes, and more specifically the Catholic tradition, the Archdiocese just shut the door on thousands of kids whose only alternatives will be public schools or expensive non-Catholic private schools.

As a Catholic university that draws many Catholic high school students to its campus, Saint Joseph's University should be concerned about the issues that face Catholic schools in Philadelphia, as well as the "solutions" the Archdiocese has offered.

The struggle of many local schools to keep up with public charter schools and private institutions may signal a larger issue in Catholic education-that an education based on Catholic teachings and values may be losing its appeal, or that the benefits may no longer outweigh the costs associated with Catholic schools.

St. Joe's has been working admirably to recognize the challenges that affect local Catholic high schools, offering programs like the Ignatian College Connection for local high school students from Catholic and non-Catholic schools alike, and scholarships for those who attended Catholic high schools, who participated in Ignatian College Connection programs, and the like.

As problems facing those attending Catholic schools continue to change, St. Joe's needs to be able to anticipate and respond to the needs of its students.

Saint Joseph's administrators seeking a more diverse campus should recognize the disservice that closed inner city schools does for the university's pool of prospective applicants. If Catholic high schools can only exist successfully in the affluent suburbs, St. Joe's may become even more dominated by middle-class homogeneity.

At the very least, the Archdiocese's decision to close two local high schools in favor of suburban aspirations signals a dramatic shift in the geography of Catholic education. If the Archdiocese truly wanted to serve all students' best interests, it would have sought more creative solutions for Philadelphia's particular problems.

The Hawk Staff