ARTICLE THE LACK OF CONSENSUS AMONG CATHOLICS FOR ESTABLISHING NEW ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS

For a century Catholic schools have formed the basis for a strong system of acculturation into Catholic identity and values. Catholic schools provided a low-cost basic education and served as a common school for all social classes of Catholics. This system has weakened considerably in the last decades. Between 1970 and 2000 there was a net loss of 3,595 Catholic schools in the United States, a 29.9 % decline. In addition, the nature of these schools seems to be changing as the percentage of total Catholic school enrollment made up by non-Catholics has increased ten-fold in 30 years. Many Catholic schools seem to have pursued increased academic excellence at the expense of religious acculturation. This paper examines diocesan data to determine the extent to which Catholics still consider Catholic elementary schools to be important. Findings include survey data on school importance from 55,000 diocesan Catholics. In addition, parishioner survey results are presented from two sub-urban parishes, each of which is considering establishing a parochial elemen-tary school. If new elementary schools are going to be established, a way must be found for Catholics to arrive at a consensus on this issue. For most Catholics over the age of 50, the presence of Catholic elemen-tary schools was often taken for granted. In 1852 the First Plenary Council of Baltimore urged every Catholic parish in the United States to establish a school. Due in part to the numbers of religious sisters that became available for educational ministry, schools were established at a rapid pace. By 1900 about 3,500 parochial schools were in existence. Within 20 years, there were 6,551 schools, with 41,581 teachers instructing 1,759,673 pupils. By the mid-1960s, there were 4.5 million elementary Catholic school pupils, an all-time high (National Catholic Educational Association, n.d., pp.12-17). Since this zenith point of enrollment, fewer children are enrolling i