sapoman says:
SAVE THE CATHOLIC SCHOOLS
THEY WORK MIRACLES IN NYC
By SOL STERN
May 1, 2007 -- THE schools that have the best record in our inner cit ies are also the most endan gered. It's a system that largely started here in New York City, too: America's Catholic schools.
Consider Rice HS in Harlem, run by the Christian Brothers religious order. For decades, Rice has rescued at-risk African-American boys and turned them into responsible men who go on to college and then give back to the community. Yet it nearly closed down two years ago, and remains on the edge.
Demographic changes and financial pressures have led to the closing of thousands of excellent inner-city Catholic schools and needlessly deepened the nation's urban-education crisis. Philanthropists - and policymakers - need to help these schools continue their mission.
It's hard to exaggerate the challenge that Rice and similar schools voluntarily take on. Young black males lead the nation in homicides, both as victims and perpetrators; have the highest rates of unemployment and incarceration; and lag behind every other racial, ethnic and gender subgroup in academic achievement.
More than 70 percent of Rice students are black - and more than 90 percent of its entering students finish high school and go on to college.
Of course, studies galore have shown that Catholic schools do a better job of educating inner-city poor and minority children than do public schools with comparable student populations. Why this "Catholic school advantage"? One explanation - perhaps the most powerful - is discipline.
Above the doors leading to Rice's lobby, through which all its students pass every morning, a plaque admonishes: "The 'Street' ENDS here!"
That message is Rice's alternative to the metal detectors in so many of our public high schools. It's there thanks to Rice's head of school - 61-year-old Brother John Walderman, a lifelong Christian Brothers educator picked to save Rice two years ago, when enrollment had plummeted from 400 students in 1999 to a bankruptcy-threatening low of 265.
In his two years at Rice's helm, Walderman has managed to stop the hemorrhaging, though the school's condition is still precarious.
VIEW FULL ARTICLE >PAGE 1 2 3 CONTINUE READING >
http://www.nypost.com/seven/05012007/postopinion/opedcolumnists/save_the_catholic_schools_opedcolumnists_sol_stern.htm
Answered 10 months, 1 week ago
» Rate answer:
(+0) 
(-0)
»
Flag as Abuse
