Lost Classroom, Lost Community – Catholic Schools` Importance in Urban America - Hardcover

Brinig, Margaret F.; Garnett, Nicole Stelle

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 022612200X ISBN 13: 9780226122007

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 2014

Synopsis

In the past two decades in the United States, more than 1,600 Catholic elementary and secondary schools have closed, and more than 4,500 charter schools-public schools that are often privately operated and freed from certain regulations - have opened, many in urban areas. With a particular emphasis on Catholic school closures, Lost Classroom, Lost Community examines the implications of these dramatic shifts in the urban educational landscape. More than just educational institutions, Catholic schools promote the development of social capital - the social networks and mutual trust that form the foundation of safe and cohesive communities. Drawing on data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods and crime reports collected at the police beat or census tract level in Chicago, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles, Margaret F. Brinig and Nicole Stelle Garnett demonstrate that the loss of Catholic schools triggers disorder, crime, and an overall decline in community cohesiveness, and suggest that new charter schools fail to fill the gaps left behind. This book shows that the closing of Catholic schools harms the very communities they were created to bring together and serve.

About this title

Review:

"By all accounts, the loss of an inner-city Catholic school is a blow to its disadvantaged students. But is there more to this story? What happens to the neighborhood--the urban fabric--when the bells stop ringing once and for all? That question is probed in a groundbreaking new book, Lost Classroom, Lost Community."--William Bole "OSV Newsweekly "

"An insightful new analysis. . . . Lost Classroom, Lost Community's sobering last chapter asks readers to imagine the implications of cities without Catholic schools; the loss of quality social capital-building education in traditional neighborhoods, leaving families unable to afford alternatives to poor quality public schools struggling in the wake of others seeking refuge away from their declining neighborhoods."--Will Seath "Fare Forward "

"Brinig and Garnett are intent on showing that it is not just the inner social capital of Catholic schools (discipline, parental involvement, teacher dedication) that counts but that this social capital has a spillover effect on neighborhoods. . . . They are looking at Catholic schools not only as educational institutions but as civic or community institutions."--John A. Coleman, S.J. "America "

"As the important book Lost Classroom, Lost Community argues, urban Catholic schools have been in the social-capital business for a century, to great effect. We must do everything we can to stem their demise."--Michael J. Petrilli "National Review "

"The authors make the ingenious argument that they can detect the distinct influence of the closing of a Catholic school because such events are not related only to the increase of poverty and the growth of minority populations. Which schools in such areas close, they argue on the basis of detailed knowledge of how Catholic schools operate, depends on the commitment of the pastor of the parish. . . . One suspects that the effect of the Catholic school on its neighborhood is unique, as the commitments between school, teachers, administrators, parents, and students are strengthened by residence in the same neighborhood, as well as the tie of a common religion binding many of them. If Catholic schools have such effects, one must raise the question, and the authors do, of why these schools cannot get public funds: they do as good a job of educating their students as public schools, perhaps better. But while voucher programs, for example, have overcome legal prohibitions in some states, political resistance to the flow of substantial public funds to schools not under the control of districts remains intense."--Nathan Glazer, Harvard University "Education Next "

"Recent academic research, like the 2014 book Lost Classroom, Lost Community by two professors at the University of Notre Dame, has confirmed that Catholic schools help stabilize their communities. When President Bush asked me to help organize the 2008 White House summit on inner-city faith-based schooling, he characterized the situation as a 'crisis.' Less than a decade later, Catholic schools are budding for a renaissance."--Karl Zinsmeister "Wall Street Journal "

"There is ample research to demonstrate inner-city Catholic schools' educational excellence, going back to the pioneering Coleman/Greeley studies in the 1970s. Now comes an even more comprehensive claim about the positive impact of these schools: For, according to two law professors at the University of Notre Dame, Margaret F. Brinig and Nicole Stelle Garnett, inner-city Catholic schools are important factors in urban renewal as builders of 'social capital.' . . . Inner-city Catholic schools are in deep financial crisis, with strapped dioceses scrambling to find the dollars to subsidize indisputably effective schools that can no longer support themselves by themselves. Brinig and Garnett argue that, given their demonstrably positive impact across society, these schools should be given a fighting chance through mechanisms like tuition tax credits or vouchers, with public funds going to the child to enable students to attend an inner-city Catholic school."--George Weigel "First Things "

"Can't recommend it highly enough. . . . Brinig and Garnett take a novel tack. Rather than wade into academic effects, they use a rich data set of social cohesion measures and crime data from Chicago, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles to track the effect of closing Catholic schools on neighborhoods. Not to spoil the ending, but closing Catholic schools rends the fabrics of low income communities and can be linked to an increase in crime. . . . If this is the one book you read about the state of Catholic education (and school choice policy) in America, it would serve you well. But [these] findings . . . really set the book apart, and will make this required reading and citation for all interested in Catholic education for a very long time."--Michael McShane "AEIdeas: The Public Policy Blog of the American Enterprise Institute "

"Education reformers and policymakers take note: Catholic schools bring something to the table that charters don't. . . . Buried between the charts and graphs is a convincing case that flourishing inner-city Catholic schools make for flourishing inner-city neighborhoods. We'll miss them when they're gone."--Matthew Hennessey "City Journal "

"When a Catholic school closes down, education isn't the only area that oft-times suffers. While charter schools often emerge to fill the gaps left by shuttered Catholic schools, Garnett and Brinig believe that these institutions aren't as effective at positively impacting the community at large."--Billy Hallowell "TheBlaze "

About the Author:

Margaret F. Brinig is the Fritz Duda Family Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame and a fellow of Notre Dame's Institute for Educational Initiatives. She is the author of several books, including, most recently, Family, Law, and Community: Supporting the Covenant, also published by the University of Chicago Press. She lives in Granger, IN. Nicole Stelle Garnett is professor of law at the University of Notre Dame and a fellow of Notre Dame's Institute for Educational Initiatives. She is the author of Ordering the City: Land Use, Policing, and the Restoration of Urban America. She lives in South Bend, IN.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 022612200X
• ISBN 13: 9780226122007
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 224