ST. MARGARET’S SCHOOL CLOSES
May 24th, 2006 by Peter
Soaring health insurance costs and dwindling enrollment are forcing church officials to close the Willow Street Catholic school after graduation. The school has 180 students from pre-kindergarten to eighth grade.
“This parish can no longer support the school,” said Dale R. Hoyt, superintendent of schools for the Archdiocese of Hartford. “We looked at different strategies, but we had to make the decision.”
St. Margaret’s, 289 Willow St., is the third Waterbury parochial school to close in the last four years. St. Joseph’s in Brooklyn closed in 2002, and St. Lucy’s School in the North End closed last year.
…we can’t help wondering: How long can the Catholic Church keep this up? For the past 30 years, it has seen a shift of its parishioners from cities to suburbs, a decline in the ranks of its clergy and huge budget shortfalls. Still, it has remained a beacon in the stormy waters of urban education.
Catholic schools produce results far better than their public counterparts for a fraction of the cost. On last year’s New York State reading and math tests, fourth and eighth graders in Catholic schools scored 7% to 10% higher than public-school students. The public per-pupil cost in New York is about $15,000 annually; Catholic school tuition is about $3,000.
Many of us had hoped that the school-choice movement would have spread further by now, allowing poor parents to use tax-funded vouchers at these excellent Catholic schools. It just hasn’t happened. There have been a few victories: The Cleveland voucher program, ruled constitutional by the Supreme Court in 2002, has expanded to include all of Ohio. And Washington D.C.’s pilot program has put vouchers’ benefits under the noses of our nation’s leaders. But defeats elsewhere–including the Florida Supreme Court’s decision to yank the 800 voucher-funded students out of private schools–suggest a long road ahead.
Urban Catholic schools may not be able to wait.
For more information on the school choice movement in Connecticut, see the Yankee Institute’s web site. More information can also be sought from Theresa McGrath of the Family Alliance for Children in Education at FACE0203@comcast.net and the Connecticut Federation of Catholic School Parents, an affiliate of the Connecticut Catholic Conference.
Our prayers are with the parishioners of St. Margaret’s Church and its pastor, Fr. Joseph Looney, a strong pro-family priest.
