Editorials: Good news for city — Catholic schools grow

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Updated: February 16, 2012 8:21AM

For 45 long years, there’s been one consistent and disheartening storyline about Roman Catholic schools in Chicago: decline.

Until now.

For the first time since 1965, elementary enrollment in Chicago Catholic schools is up modestly, growing slightly in both 2010 and 2011. The last two-year period of enrollment growth in Chicago was between 1963 and 1965 — before many of today’s Catholic school parents were even born.

The uptick is small — adding just 650 students since 2009 — but it means the Archdiocese of Chicago, which also includes suburban Cook County and Lake County, has likely turned the corner. Though enrollment in the suburbs is down, the decline is less than 1 percent across the archdiocese. Five years ago the drop was 5 percent.

Whether you are Catholic or some other faith, whether your children go to Catholic schools or public or another private institution, this is good news for the city as a whole.

Vibrant schools, public and private, build and sustain vibrant neighborhoods. And Catholic schools in particular have played a central role in building this city. Walk the corridors of City Hall, the city’s law firms, its civic and neighborhood institutions and you will undoubtedly run across Chicago Catholic school graduates — locally raised Chicagoans giving back to their city.

For years, neighborhoods across the city have suffered as Catholic schools have closed and families have fled, destabilizing communities and stripping kids of their home away from home.

The trauma of school closings was probably best summed up by Cardinal Francis George in 2005, when he had to shutter 21 schools, the largest number ever.

“No one wants to close a school because you’re closing a child’s world,” George said.

The needle looks to be pointing in the right direction, at least in Chicago. Enrollment is up the most in the 95 inner city schools where the Archdiocese offers financial support and the Big Shoulders Fund offers scholarships. There is also an uptick in enrollment in gentrifying neighborhoods. The largest growth, 6 percent, is clustered in Little Village, Pilsen, West Town, Bucktown, Wicker Park, Logan Square and Austin. Growth is greatest in preschool, kindergarten and first grade. In general, the archdiocese points to improved fund-raising and better marketing, programming and leadership.

Archdiocese of Chicago Catholic schools

(includes Roman Catholic schools in Chicago, suburban Cook and Lake counties)

Year Students Schools

2011 86,502 256

2005 101,894 257

2000 127,758 312

1965 366,000 524

Chicago Catholic school enrollment

2011 30,190

2010 30,001

2009 29,543