Save the Catholic Schools

Bill Bennett's NRO column obviously struck a chord with me; it's something near and dear to me.

A new study by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute — a smart, highly regarded education think tank — estimates that 300,000 students have been displaced due to Catholic-school closings since 1990, and that taxpayers have spent upwards of $20 billion to pay for public schooling for these students whose Catholic schools have vanished.

It has now been 15 years since Star closed. Yes, I still think about it. With some of the controversy here about Archbishop Wuerl converting some Catholic schools to charters, this has been a news-worthy item here. Someone commented that we don't have Catholic schools to educate, but we have these schools because we are Catholic. Or something like that...anyway, when St. Veronica closed, obviously, I was a decade-plus removed from that environment. But there is a sadness that a generation of kids is being deprived of this education, Detroit kids who aren't Catholic and Catholic kids living in the inner suburbs. I guess this is all a product of demographics. But you can never convince me after what happened fifteen years ago that Church administrators and priests really care about this, really believe these schools are important and really will sacrifice for them. So if Wichita Catholics can make this a priority, well, that is one good thing about the state of Kansas. As for me, I need to think about what I can do.