Commentary by: Jeanne Allen, Founder and CEO of CER
Hundreds have written about and people from all religious backgrounds have celebrated and shared the data-based fact that Religious schools save lives.
Since Sociologist James Coleman and his colleagues first documented Catholic schools’ academic successes in 1982, as Education Next puts it succinctly, “A variety of studies… by scholars at the University of Chicago, Northwestern, the Brookings Institution, and Harvard, have all supported the conclusion that Catholic schools do a better job educating children, especially the poor and minorities, than public schools.”
No matter who they serve, students emerge not only successful but disciplined. Catholic schools have a 99% graduation rate, according to the National Catholic Education Association. Says Hudson Valley News, “Five of the current U.S. Supreme Court Justices went to Catholic schools, and one third of U.S. Senators and one quarter of those serving in the House of Representatives are Catholics.
‘Public service is at the heart of the Catholic ideology, and the combination of academic success and civic responsibility translates into students’ desire to serve their fellow men and women,’ says Catherine Merryman, principal at Our Lady of Lourdes High School in Poughkeepsie, NY. “Every one of our graduates earns a New York State Regents diploma, more than 70 percent of them earn an Advanced Regents’ diploma, and 99 percent of our students go on to college – and 86 percent of them are accepted by their first choice college. All students take college preparatory classes, and 98 percent of our students achieve success in
