As President Bush lauded advances in faith-based education in the District Thursday, D.C. Catholic schools continued to struggle with enrollment and expenses that threaten to erode recent gains.
Nationally, 1,200 faith-based inner-city schools closed from 2000 to 2006, creating what President Bush termed a “crisis.”
In the District, the Washington Archdiocese has been struggling for a decade, spending to keep Catholic schools open, according to Superintendent Patricia Weitzel-O’Neill. The results have been mixed, and a number of campuses have been forced to close.
“They’re a great national asset,” she said. “But the scary part is that they’re slowly disappearing because they’re not supported by the community as a whole. Collaborations are the key to getting over this.”
Thursday’s summit highlighted programs that appear to be working locally and could be applied nationally.
One of the afternoon’s speakers, the Rev. Timothy Scully, discussed his program at Notre Dame that prepares college graduates to teach in underserved Catholic schools and then requires a two-year commitment for the teacher to teach in Catholic schools.
Six teachers from that program are serving in District Catholic schools.
The summit also made mention of an innovative Catholic high school program in which students attend classes four days a week and then work one day as a way to offset the costs of their education.
But the reality remains that Catholic schools face a tough economic and social climate in the Washington area, experts said.
The Washington Archdiocese is in the process of converting six Catholic schools in the District to public charter schools, a decision that the archdiocese made in the face of severe financial problems.
The archdiocese superintendent said the schools had experienced a 17 percent drop in enrollment, which made it impossible to keep
up financially.
“There are greater needs in more schools than in the past,” Weitzell O’Neill said. “When faced with the decision of what to do … we realized we could at least keep these schools open by allowing a charter operator to come in.”
