Tracking the crisis in Catholic education

This week brings some keen observations on what's happening in Catholic education today and why. If you've got an interest -- and don't we all -- in hearing more about the current crisis, head over to National Review Online's "Phi Beta Cons" to read Sol Stern's spot-on analysis by clicking HERE.

Time magazine also takes a stab at this subject in a feature this week. Here's a snippet from the article by Gilbert Cruz:

"Many Catholic schools, however, are following in the steps of their public brethren and trying to survive by changing the way they do business. Mandating that students work to pay off tuition, forging partnerships with philanthropists and foundations, converting to charter schools, and taking control away from pastors and putting it in the hands of lay experts — these are just some of the ways dioceses (essentially a church district) are hoping to stem the school-closure tide, which has reached worrisome proportions in America's urban areas, where close to half of all parochial schools are located.

"'We have no choice,' says the Rev. Timothy Scully, CSC, founder of the University of Notre Dame's Alliance for Catholic Education, a sort of Catholic version of Teach for America, which trains college grads to work in underserved parochial schools. 'We either reinvent ourselves or I don't see how we don't ultimately disappear from America's inner cities. The model upon which we were founded was so different, both from a cost and supply side.'"

You can read Time's full take on Catholic schools by clicking HERE.