Rewrite the Narrative

Written by: Eric Prister

Schools are closing, or at least, enrollment is down. Schools are too expensive, anyway, and so many people can't afford to attend them. The Catholic school is a dying breed—the model just doesn't work anymore.

So the narrative reads.

Twenty years ago, the Alliance for Catholic Education was founded in the midst of a narrative we've heard far too often - a supposed downward spiral of Catholic schools.

As the ACE bus team wraps up the second leg of our 50-city tour, we see signs of a narrative in the midst of heavy rewriting.

It is true, in some corners of the country, Catholic schools still face immense challenges. Many, however, are thriving, and communities are rallying around them. Just ask the teachers, families and students we visited in Jacksonville about financial difficulty and the prospect of having to fight to keep their school doors open. Over the past decade, the Guardian Schools have raised more than $9.5 million to keep Holy Rosary and St. Pius V running and thriving.

Many parents can't afford Catholic schools for their children, right? Ask Our Lady of Prompt Succor in Westwego, Louisiana, and they'll tell you differently. Rather than succumbing to the struggle to fill seats in their classrooms, its bursting at the seams thanks in large part to the state-wide voucher programs available in Louisiana.

St. John the Evangelist in Hapeville, Georgia is also thriving, and without the benefit of parental choice options. That school provides one of the best educations available to the children of that area, and it does so with a Catholic spirit and joyous energy that you can feel when you walk through their halls.

Nearly closed just five years ago, enrollment at Sacred Heart in Lake Worth, Florida is climbing quickly; 90 new students have joined with scholarships from Step Up for Students, 54 students with McKay scholarships, and 20 pre-K students benefiting from the VPK program. The elementary school doesn't just excel academically (their Odyssey of the Mind team has won regionals six years in a row)—they support a thriving brass band, drum line, a capella group, and jazz band.

Of course, we can't forget to mention our own Notre Dame ACE Academies that we recently visited in Tampa. Students at St. Joseph School have improved their reading scores by four grade levels in less than a year. With such progress, it is no wonder that their enrollment gains are just as impressive.

We're not going to hide from the challenges that still face Catholic schools in this country, but we're not going to dwell on them either. The narrative we see playing out throughout this tour is too filled with hope. Catholic schools are showing amazing signs of life and vibrancy; they are thriving and beating the odds.

ACE set out twenty years ago with a belief that the popular version of the story of Catholic schools wasn't written in stone - we believed then, and believe now, that the narrative has a different ending. Our February trip through the South has shown us we're not the only ones who carry that belief. The schools, their faculties and staffs, and the communities that support them are the ones crafting the new story. This bus tour plays witness to a great revival. Let's continue to rewrite the narrative.