For Catholic Schools, Crisis and Catharsis

Catholic school are closing nationwide. This NYT article discusses the history and future of America's Catholic school network. Unfortunately it doesn't pinpoint the reasons for the dwindling enrollment.

A series of major studies in the past few years, including one by the White House Domestic Policy Council, have described the dwindling presence of parochial schools as a crisis not just for Catholics but for society.

The losses have already been deeply felt in impoverished urban neighborhoods, where parochial schools have attracted poor and minority students — including non-Catholics — seeking havens of safety and order from troubled public schools. Roughly 20 percent of parochial school students are not Catholic, according to experts.