Michael, it is definitely possible to get a good education at Catholic schools, particularly Jesuit schools in my opinion, but that doesn't make them inherently superior to public schools, for several very good and logical reasons.
First, they get to pick and choose their students. Obviously, their overall performance will be better because they do not have to educate every student who appears at the door. Parents of Catholic school students tend to be more serious about their children's education than the average, because they are paying at least something, and often quite a lot, for them to go to those schools. So it is very much a self-selecting group, which raises the general performance level. The children of parents who are interested in their educational success will always do better than will the large general group of students.
Also, their teachers are paid less and in most states do not need to have teaching credentials. While some of them are good teachers naturally, it is really a mixed bag overall. Some of them are quite harsh and abusive, particularly historically. A lot of laws have now been passed to ensure that the students are not beaten and humiliated, but certainly an educational approach where that has been the norm for hundreds of years has some inherent values that are abhorrent to me. My husband was damaged forever by Catholic school teachers who were physically and emotionally extremely abusive with him. You would not want to be faced with our therapy bills to try and rebuild some of the self esteem which was taken away from him violently and cruelly by a "good Catholic education".
Another reason Catholic schools are able to educate children less expensively than public schools is that they are not required to provide speech therapists, learning disability evaluations, and all the other kinds of special education that public schools must. And the children pay for their own books. Catholic school playgrounds are often quite grim, without much to play with except expanses of asphalt. I wouldn't want that for my child! And college preparatory Catholic schools in San Francisco run from $5,000 to $17,000 a year, exactly the same price range of non-religious private schools. I don't really see the "far fewer dollars per student" in operation there. |
