New Genesis of Catholic schools

Jim Murray staked his spot early, camping at the start of the line as night tumbled into dawn.

A restless evening on a hallway floor wasn't too bad if it got his eldest son a seat in Arlington Heights' St. James School. The entry would secure spots for Murray's three younger children, too, a guarantee that drew scores of similarly minded parents. Like Murray, many attended Catholic schools themselves and wanted the same academic and spiritual grounding for their kids.

"It's like going home. You go to what you know," Murray recalls.

Seventeen years later, Catholic educators hope to rekindle the commitment to parochial schools that once drew all-night waiting lines to St. James and other school hallways.

The challenge took center stage Monday as 6,000 Catholic educators gathered for the first time as a group in celebration at the UIC Pavilion in Chicago. Cardinal Francis George said it was the only time he'd seen a congregation of teachers and principals from many of the Chicago Archdiocese's 256 schools spread through Cook and Lake counties.

Catholic school Superintendent Nicholas Wolsonovich acknowledged the shift from religious to lay teachers seen in many parochial schools. Four decades ago, 95 percent of Catholic educators were nuns and clergy. Today, 95 percent are lay people.

"It is our turn to be the stewards of this great mission," Wolsonovich said.

Such dramatic change affects the financial and spiritual footing of schools. Costs climb and payrolls accrue with growing numbers of lay teachers. Many parishes struggle to cover the tab and keep afloat local schools. Competition with public and private alternatives grows for teachers and ultimately, students.

This comes as Catholic leaders this year unroll a plan to strengthen schools financially, academically and spiritually. The three-tiered approach is vital to a parochial system now more than 250,000 students smaller than it was four decades ago, educators said.

"Money continues to be an issue along with academic excellence and Catholic identity," said Principal Peter Tantillo of St. Alphonsus Liguori School in Prospect Heights. "If we lose any one of them, the system is weakened."

To bolster it, Wolsonovich outlined a blueprint to improve parochial schools during the next five to seven years that includes:

• Serving students with special learning needs -- a population many Catholic schools traditionally have been unable to serve.

• Reconfiguring schools to draw students from myriad parishes if a single church cannot sustain them, investing more in teacher training.

• Seeking financial support for families "so they can more easily choose a Catholic education for their children."

Called Genesis, the plan also requires that every parish supports parochial education.

Lynn Herrick welcomed the promise of financial help. She sees the toll of rising tuition reflected every year in the hallways of Wauconda's Transfiguration School.

"We've had families who had to leave our school because they just couldn't afford it," said Herrick, a third-grade teacher who's worked in parochial schools for nearly 20 years. "It is very tough. They are always so sad because we truly are a family."

The Catholic Conference of Illinois urged lawmakers to reinstate funding to help nonpublic schools defray the cost of safety and health precautions, be it fire alarm checks or fingerprint security checks. Gov. Rod Blagojevich vetoed the $10 million expense last month.

State law permits public support of some private school expenses. A state tax credit, for instance, exists that families may devote toward books, tuition and other expenses. The Catholic Conference sought to raise the tax credit's cap from $500 to $750, but the measure "is not being discussed in Springfield right now," conference director Bob Gilligan said.

Such financial support coupled with scholarships --the Chicago Archdiocese this year plans to give an estimated $30 million in high school tuition awards, Wolsonovich said -- would help keep stable enrollment and perhaps even grow it.

Catholic schools served 366,000 students in Cook and Lake counties during the 1960s. Today, they educate nearly 98,000. The number of Catholic schools across Chicago and the suburbs dropped from 500 to 256 during the same four decades.

Enrollment sits at the heart of the challenges facing parochial education. But making Catholic schools more affordable fulfills only a third of the system's mission, experts said. Offering strong academics and a religious identity is intrinsic to Catholic schools' mission.

"It is not just a question of giving them information so they can do well in this life," said George, who received a standing ovation for his 10 years of service as archbishop. "It is a question of passing on the faith."