At every level, non-Catholics are flocking to Catholic schools. The reasons vary, but no one argues with the numbers.
The rise of anti-Semitism on college campuses, many of them at elite institutions, has driven Jewish students to seek a more welcoming environment at Catholic colleges and universities.
Franciscan University of Steubenville is going out of its way to welcome Jewish students. It has joined a coalition of 100 organizations, lead by Yeshiva University, to expedite the transfer of Jewish students to Catholic colleges. The coalition has condemned Hamas, pledging a receptive milieu for these students.
For different reasons, non-Catholics have long expressed an interest in elementary and secondary Catholic schools. Nationally, more than one in five students (22 percent) in Catholic schools are not Catholic.
For several reasons, many African Americans choose a Catholic school over their competitors. One factor is the academic performance of these students: they do better than their public school cohorts. The Catholic graduation rate for high school students, overall, is typically close to 100 percent, and 85 percent attend a four-year college.
Another reason for choosing a Catholic school is that they teach virtue.
A teacher whom Bill Donohue knows who used to teach at St. Dominic High School in Oyster Bay, Long Island, recalls not only having a fair number of Jewish students, she had quite a few gay students who transferred from a local public school.
She learned that “these children had been bullied at their various public schools and labeled ‘queer’ and that St. Dom’s offered them a safe, loving home where respect, love and dignity was afforded every student.” As she pointed out, this is not what the media report.
Most Catholic schools do remarkable work, and it is too often underappreciated. They should be available to all parents, not simply those who can afford to pay tuition.
