For those who care about putting Catholic education on a solid financial footing, this is a good thing.
The problem with the plan isn't about the number of schools closing - major change is needed for a system that has shrunk from 271,088 students in 1960 to 68,000 now. It's about a process completed without enough public input.
The exact opposite is true of the Philadelphia School District's plan to deal with too many buildings for too few students.
The district has done a fantastic job of involving the public, with more than a dozen meetings before the plan was developed and 17 meetings citywide since it was unveiled in November.
But although the district says that it has 40,000 unused "seats," the plan deals with only 14,000. It recommends closing only nine schools in June and reconfiguring grades at 17 others.
* * *
Rumors started to fly last fall: Father Judge is going to close, its land sold! Villanova is going to buy Archbishop Carroll!
The Blue Ribbon Commission formed by then-Cardinal Justin Rigali to study the future of Catholic schools worked behind closed doors and the unknown led many to expect the worst.
When Archbishop Charles Chaput received the commission's recommendations to close 45 elementary schools and four high schools - Carroll and Judge aren't on the list - parents and students were shellshocked.
Eleanor Dezzi, a 1965 West Catholic graduate, political consultant and member of the commission, backs the process. (Her alma mater is closing.)
She points to thousands of surveys filled out last spring, the work the commission did reaching out to stakeholders from philanthropists to parents, and myriad meetings to review data.
"I think we sought a lot of input, and took a lot of things under advisement," Dezzi says. "We were looking at [Catholic education] for the next decade and more. . . . We did not operate in a vacuum."
