Reverend William F. Davis, O.S.F.S.
Assistant Secretary for Catholic Schools
and Public Policy

United States Catholic Conference

International Conference on Private School
Education Towards the 21st Century
Beijing, China
October 13 - 15, 1999

Introduction:
This paper will give an overview of private schools in the United States and outline how these schools, elementary, secondary and higher education have in the past and continue today to benefit the common good of the nation's society. The overview will include a brief look at the constitutional basis that has created the nation's current approach to schooling. It is important to understand the wide diversity that exists in our private schools and why it came to be. Finally the paper will attempt to identify what major challenges they face as we prepare to enter the 21st century.

While the emphasis of the paper is on private schools in general, it is important to be aware that I come to the topic with a background in Catholic school education and will attempt to point out some of the diversity in private schooling by pointing out how these Catholic schools and their educational approaches may differ from other private schools as well as the government supported public schools. In addition, statistics on Catholic elementary and secondary schools are more readily available than many of the other private schools thus making some comparisons impossible or certainly less reliable.

The basic distinction between what we commonly call private and religious schools and those we identify as public schools is the way they are funded and how and by whom they are administered. While some private schools in the United States are proprietary or for profit, the overwhelming majority are non-profit. In addition, the overwhelming majority, approximately 85 percent, are religiously affiliated (National Center, 1998). Further, there really is no "system" of private schools. It might be much more correct to refer to this community as a loose "federation" of schools because of the wide variety of structures under which they are administered and because of the large amount of local autonomy that exists in almost all of these schools. The structural diversity of the Catholic school community is even shown in the publications of the U. S. Department of Education and the National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA) as having three very distinct types of schools: parochial, diocesan and private.

Some private and religious school educators in the United States view the use of "public" and "private" in the area of education as unfortunate. They feel that this usage tends to imply a negative or elitist meaning to the private schools. They feel that "private" may be interpreted by some to signify a distancing from the common purpose of education and society as well as from the goal of these schools assisting to move the nation to a better level and thus not really serving the common good of the nation. The use of the word "public" on the other hand, generally has a much more acceptable interpretation and seems to stress that these schools do serve the public good.

The reality, these observers hold, is that there really is no such thing as a "private" school. They hold that by nature every school takes students from the public and then returns them to the public. These schools use resources from suppliers who are part of the public; form their curricula based on the needs of the public they serve; adhere to basic minimum education, health and safety standards set by the state; hire teachers trained in approved institutions according to publicly certified criteria and are generally accredited under publicly approved procedures. Thus they might prefer to be called "nongovernmental" or in the case of religious schools - "denominational" or "church affiliated"(Beutow, 1985). Others try to make distinctions clearer by using terms such as public, private, and religious to stress the differences between private non-sectarian and religiously affiliated schools. Others have suggested that private be dropped all together and that these schools should be called some form of schools of choice.


Historical Background:
Any thoughtful overview of education and schooling in the United States will reveal a significant body of evidence showing that schools, from the earliest days of the first colonial foundations to this present day, reflect the wide religious, cultural and ethnic diversity of the people who came to this nation for a variety of reasons. From the beginning, the various structures, goals, curriculum, and especially the long-term degree of success in delivering both secular and denominational instruction can be found in each area of this country, no matter where the new inhabitants came from, because they made every effort to model their educational endeavors on the schools and cultures of their mother country. The greatest success and influence on colonial education seems to be most clearly found in the original English colonies (Beutow, 1970).

Almost from the day that the first colonists set foot on the North American continent, no matter whether they were Spanish, English, French or Dutch, the evidence is clear that societal, educational and religious decisions were interacting. Buetow identifies a Spanish document from approximately 1516, in which the explorers and missionaries, who were also the agents of the Spanish state, were clearly instructed to ensure that "...each village was to have its own school and church, and it was the duty of the missionaries to see that each individual was taught and instructed ... in the Catholic faith"(1970, p.3). Catholic schools clearly became a part of the early colonial American scene, especially in Florida and Louisiana, no later than the beginning of the seventeenth century (Grant, 1992). Moving to the northeastern part of colonial America, the record clearly shows that in the Massachusetts Bay Colony similar activity was going on. In 1642, the Bay Colony leaders, who in many cases were also the local Protestant church leaders, were instituting the first compulsory school attendance law in order to re-assure parents that their children would be able to not only read, but understand the basic principles of their religion. It is generally true to say that schools, whether elementary, secondary or colleges, in the early colonial times were basically run by church groups.

The desire for schooling continued to grow across the spectrum of colonial America. As this occurred, the impact of diverse religious adherence continued to impact this endeavor, because the colonists generally believed that religious training was an integral part of education and schooling. While this approach was greatly impacting the nature of colonial schools, public financing of denominational schools was the common reality. It is interesting to note, in light of the current situation in the United States with regard to funding of private and religious schools, that every member of the Constitutional Convention came from a colony that both before and after ratification of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, levied taxes that were then distributed to church related agencies in order to establish and run elementary and secondary schools (Beutow, 1985 p. 14). This funding support continued to exist and even increase well into the nineteenth century when it began to decline as state funding shifted to the newly formed "common" school. This funding could still be found after the Civil War in some localities, but this would end completely as the nineteenth century came to an end.

Even later in the mid to late nineteenth century when the era of the "common school" - the schools that are generally now referred to as public schools - began to become a reality and ultimately the majority school community, religious instruction in the common school was clearly more the rule than the exception (Kraushar, p.20). This was true because the common/public school was for the most part still operated and controlled by diverse Protestant groups and the philosophy, administration, staffing and curriculum generally presented a set of values espoused by the Protestant establishment which represented the overwhelming majority of the citizens at this time.

The person generally credited with sponsoring the initial idea of the common school was Horace Mann, a practicing Unitarian, who believed that these schools could be all things to the widest possible spread of children and that they could teach both secular subjects and common values while not being specifically sectarian in nature. These schools used a variety of curriculum resources, including the King James version of the Bible and the famous McGuffey Reader, which gave the clear impression that these schools represented a nondenominational set of Protestant values. While the common/public school movement slowly moved to become the dominant school group, it is also clear that specifically church-affiliated schools, while declining in numbers, continued to be seen, in many places, as the local public school with financial support from local governments well into the nineteenth century.

In the nineteenth century the nation began to expand rapidly both territorially and in numbers of inhabitants due to the large influx of new immigrants and the political impact of the government's adherence to the policy of "Manifest Destiny." These two events would radically affect how the delivery of educational services would be continued. The increase in immigration, bringing waves of people from different religious, ethnic and cultural backgrounds caused government officials and average citizens to work diligently to provide an educational system that would preserve what they considered the very distinct American form of democracy, civil order and social principles. The increase in population, western expansion and the industrial revolution all of which impacted the nation at this time greatly reduced the ability of voluntary church agencies to continue to provide educational services to the great number of people who required them as they had previously been able to do. In this period there was also a distinct increase in the suspicion of and even a open hostility toward private schools, especially religious schools and more specifically Catholic schools thus leading to efforts to have exclusive governmental control of all education.

It is in this period of rapid expansion, that many Catholics, both church leaders and members of the laity began to view the reality of the common school as a serious threat to the faith of Catholic school-age children. There was then a serious move to retain and begin a major expansion of elementary and secondary schools affiliated with the Catholic church. Between 1829 and 1884 there were four Provincial Councils and four Plenary Councils held in Baltimore, Maryland where the Catholic Bishops issued a series of regulations regarding the need for Catholic schools and finally decreeing that schools should be erected in all parishes within a specific time frame, priests who were negligent in doing this should be removed and parents were bound to send their children to such schools unless the Bishops approved other options (Buetow, 1970, p.152). The church leaders also called on wealthy members of the church to support Catholic higher education and took the steps that established The Catholic University in Washington, DC.

The fear of this type of non-denominational Protestant common school approach was not only held by Catholics. It is interesting to note that groups of more evangelical Protestants also looked on the common school as a danger and sought alternatives to them. A number of Protestant groups began to organize religiously affiliated elementary, secondary and higher education institutions - including a number of Lutheran denominations, Calvinists or Dutch and Christian Reformed churches, Seventh Day Adventist, Quakers and Episcopalians. The Jewish community, especially the more Orthodox branch, also opened schools. In the 1960's and beyond, a new group of religiously affiliated groups began to open Christian Day schools. Today this group is one of the fastest growing religiously affiliated school groups. These schools are often not attached to or operated by a specific denomination or church, but they are generally part of a more evangelical segment of Protestantism.

Two new groups in the private school community that have begun to appear and grow over the last decade or so are schools affiliated with the Muslim community and individuals and groups of parents who wish to educate their children at home rather than in a formal educational institution. The Muslim schools are clearly associated with their particular religious faith while the home schoolers are clearly more diverse - including those who wish a specific religious approach to what they do as well as those who choose to home school for no religious reason at all.

From the last couple of decades of the nineteenth century and into the 1960's, Catholic schools continued to grow and in many ways these schools were almost synonymous with what people viewed as the private school community and certainly with the part of that community that was affiliated with a church body. They reached their highest enrollment in 1965 when some 5.6 million students were enrolled in approximately 12,000 elementary and secondary schools - enrolling more than 85 percent of all children in private schools. Catholic schools suffered a significant decline in numbers and enrollments throughout the 1970's, 1980's and into the early 1990's. There has been a recent reversal of this decline over the last seven years. Catholic schools are showing enrollment increases and new schools are planned or opening. Some schools that were closed earlier are re-opening and some existing schools are being remodeled and/or expanded. Current NCEA figures for the 1998-1999 school year show 8,127 Catholic elementary and secondary schools with 2.648 million students enrolled.

It needs to be stated, that while the great emphasis in this paper is on private elementary and secondary schools; the young nation was also showing a great interest in the creation of a flourishing group of private institutions of higher education. The United States has the largest group of private higher education institutions, including the largest group of Catholic colleges and universities, in the world. All of the earliest colleges, e.g., Yale, Harvard, Dartmouth and Georgetown, were founded by individuals with a clear religious affiliation and goals. Some of these private institutions of higher education that were originally affiliated with church bodies have severed those more formal ties for a looser connection or dropped the connection completely.


Private School Contributions to the Common Good of Society:
The first contribution to the general good of the nation is that during the colonial period and for a significant time after the formation of the new nation private schools were almost the exclusive source of educational services to children in the elementary, secondary and college levels. The historical record is clear, private and religious schools in the United States have assisted in the overall growth and prosperity of the nation - touching every socio-economic and ethnic group. Private and religious schools have educated the leaders of all levels of government, the military, the professions and the business community as well as the common workers and those who choose to remain at home and raise a family. In addition, they continue to offer a wide variety of educational options to the citizens of the nation today.

Private and religious schools add to the common good by the example of their varied educational structures. These approaches stress decentralization, local autonomy and decision making. Private schools as a rule have a small external policy network thus allowing the idea of subsidiarity - decision making at the local level - to dominate and thus allow the schools to be more responsive to the particular needs of the people actually using the schools.

Generally speaking, private and especially religious schools, have a strong sense of community and an emphasis on increased human concern and involvement in the overall educational activities. Bryk (1993) details this contribution with its special affect in Catholic schools. This book stresses the shared values and activities as well as the distinctive social relationships that are found between the staff, students and parents in these schools. The generally smaller size of private and religious schools aids in this community building effort.

Private and religious schools contribute to the good of society, because they are free to introduce moral values into the educational process, and this instruction and example clearly add to the total educational process where the whole person is to be developed.

Private and religious schools also contribute to the common good with their record of academic achievement and their stress on a common core curriculum with greater academic requirements than are generally called for by the state. The schools emphasize the ideal of students being able to learn to the need to have high standards. Generally speaking, private and religious school students, especially those in Catholic schools, have had in recent years: higher test scores in reading, math and science; lower drop out rates and higher graduation rates; and higher college attendance rates upon graduation from high school than their public/government school counterparts. In large part, these results occur because of a staff that seems more committed to a common vision of what the school is about. Department of Education reports (1996) show a higher degree of job satisfaction and involvement in the decision making process relating to what goes on in school by private and religious school teachers and administrators than their public school counterparts. In addition, more of these teachers and principals say they would become teachers or administrators again, if they were to make that career decision again. In the context of the religious school, they view this as part of the ministry of the sponsoring church related group. Many of these teachers and administrators see their efforts as involving more than a job; they view their efforts as a service. In the context of the religious school, they view this as a part of the ministry of the sponsoring church group.

The presence of private and religious schools, especially the large commitment of the Catholic school community, to the education of the poor and ethnic minorities in our urban centers and in rural areas contributes to the well-being of society. Many of these Catholic schools and other private schools are maintained at great cost because of the church's commitment to bring social justice and quality education to the poor and those most at risk educationally. Many of these schools serve large numbers of non-Catholic children who might not have the chance to advance educationally if this opportunity was not provided. In many situations, the church's commitment to maintaining these inner city schools serves to give social and economic support and strength to changing neighborhoods.

The private and religious school community is also willing to share its educational experiences with their counterparts in the public area with the goal of improving the overall educational services available to the nation. A specific example of this is the USCC's 1995 document, "Principles for Educational Reform in the United States," which was issued to show the Bishops interest in the provision of quality educational services to all of the nation's children whether they are enrolled in public, private or religious schools. The Bishops have this concern since millions of Catholic children and thousands of adults are enrolled or work in public and non-Catholic private schools. In that document they identify and elaborate on six basic principles that should guide the nation's educational reform efforts; those are: (1) all persons have the right to a quality education; (2) parental rights and responsibilities are primary in education; (3) students are the central focus of all education; (4) quality teaching is essential to the learning process; (5) true quality education must address the moral and spiritual needs of students and (6) government has a responsibility to provide adequate resources for the attainment of a quality education for all children, and these education policy decisions are best made at the level closest to the actual teaching and learning situation. The Bishops concluded by calling on all educators to join in this dialogue on how best to achieve true education reform.

The private school community also provides a great source of economic savings to the nation. Based on figures from the Department of Education, the average cost of educating a child in elementary or secondary public schools is $6,564. If all private school students were enrolled in the public schools it would add an additional $32.8 billion dollars, at the minimum, to the general tax bill. In addition, there would be need for funding to provide additional classrooms, equipment and teachers to handle this new enrollment.

Finally, these schools often offer services beyond the regular elementary and secondary school curriculum by offering numerous extended care programs to families who need them because of their strained economic status. NCEA reports that over 50 percent of Catholic schools offer such services. Church related agencies also provide a significant percentage of all child care services in the nation.

In addition to Bryk, Beutow in each of his works, Carper (1984), Kraushar, and Sheehan each point out numerous and unique benefits provided to the nation through the work of the private and religious schools.

Private School Diversity:
The U. S. Department of Education's National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) latest report on The Private Schools Universe (1998), reports that in 1996 there were 27,686 schools enrolling slightly over five million students with over 360,000 teachers (p.5). This compares with over 80,000 public schools with almost 42 million students and 2.6 million teachers (NCES, 1996, pp. v - vi). As mentioned earlier, the overwhelming majority of private schools are not-for-profit and are religiously affiliated. Slightly more than 50 percent of the students and just under 30 percent of the religious schools are affiliated with the Catholic church compared to less than 35 percent of students and slightly more that 47 percent of schools for all other religious schools. The NCES report lists 35 different religious denominations and seventeen religious school associations in its report. Non-sectarian private schools enroll slightly more than nine percent of these private school students and fifteen percent of the schools in this group - the largest group of non-sectarian private schools are generally referred to as independent schools. NCES (1998, p.19) lists 21 different non-sectarian associations to which these schools may belong.

Catholic schools enroll almost 65 percent of private elementary grades (K-8) only and 75 percent of private secondary grades (9-12) only school students. This compares to just over 26 percent and just under fifteen percent respectively in other religious schools and just over nine percent and ten percent respectively in non-sectarian private schools. Private schools tend to be smaller. Only slightly over seven percent enroll more than 500 students, and over 57 percent enroll less than 150 students. Private schools are fairly evenly distributed over the nation with less than 30 percent of schools located in each of the four geographic regions with the South having the largest number of schools (29 percent) and students (28.7 percent). The largest number of schools (41 percent) and students (49.5 percent) are located in central cities and the smallest number of schools (21.7 percent) and students (11.4 percent) are located in rural areas of the country (NCES, 1998 p.5 - 6). According to the NCES (1998, p.20) study, 22.1 percent of private school students are minorities - the largest group being in non-sectarian schools (24.5 percent). The NCEA (1999, p. 13) reports that in the current school year, 1998 - 1999, minorities make up 25 percent and non-Catholics make up almost fourteen percent of the student enrollment in Catholic schools. The overall national average of minority students enrolled in private, and especially Catholic schools, is comparable to the national average found in public schools. Most private and religious schools are currently co-educational in nature; though single sex schools are more commonly found on the secondary level. In the Catholic school community less than 500 schools are currently single sex in nature and less than 60 of those are on the elementary level.

The two major characteristics that set private and religious schools apart from the government or public schools are how they are funded and governed. The most common factor found in the private and religious schools is that they are generally funded from tuition charged to parents and guardians and financial contributions raised from other private sources, such as fund raising and development and endowment funds. This development/endowment approach is becoming more common in Catholic schools; something that has been very common for most non-sectarian private schools for most of their history. Religiously affiliated schools may also be subsidized from other church revenue sources. For example, in many Catholic schools tuition may be augmented by subsidies from one or more parishes or from a diocese or a religious community; though this practice is becoming less common and certainly less in real dollars in recent years. Government/public schools are supported with government tax revenues.

Generally speaking, private and religious schools are governed by independent authorities at the local level - this may be a local church body or person, an independent board or a religious community. Most independent non-sectarian schools are governed by independently chosen school boards or boards of trustees. Religiously affiliated schools may have similar structures; but they may also be controlled by a specific church body. For example, Catholic schools may be under the control of a diocese, one or more parishes, a religious community or an independent board. In many cases there has been an increase in the number of Catholic schools that are using school boards. The current school year report from NCEA lists over 6,000 schools with "boards/Commissions/Council"(p.7). But most of these are not as influential as public school or even independent school boards, as they are only advisory in nature and the focus of administration lies with a school administrator, pastor or Bishop. Public school districts are generally run by elected or appointed school boards that have great discretion in a wide variety of areas that affect the staffing, financing and curriculum. In many if not most private schools, the local school administrator will have much more autonomy in such areas.

Finally, the great diversity in the private school community is shown by the great number of different types of schools that abound. This is shown clearly in the great variety of religiously affiliated schools. But there is also a variety of non-sectarian schools, e.g., boarding schools, military schools, Montessori schools, schools for exception children or children with special needs, etc.. One of the things all private school leaders probably would accept is the fact that there is no single educational model that serves all of the various educational needs of all children. Private and religious school supporters would unhesitatingly support the philosophy that everyone has a right to a quality education that will prepare young people to develop their physical, moral and intellectual qualities and that parents have the right to select the education best suited to the needs of their children (USCC, 1995).


Federal and State Structures Affecting Schools in the United States:
Structures and laws affecting schooling in the United States are basically founded on the fact that the U.S. Constitution makes absolutely no mention of education. The Tenth Amendment to the Constitution says: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." Thus the responsibility for the establishment and regulation of schools is left to the 50 States and every State Constitution has made provision for providing and funding of public education. This means that there are 50 different ways in which education may be provided to school age children in the United States and in how schools may be regulated and financed.

This constitutional situation makes the provision of education different from that of most nations, where the central government plays a major role in this critical function. In fact, the U.S. Department of Education is a relatively new federal cabinet position, having only been created in 1978. The original predecessor of the current Department was established in the late nineteenth century as an agency responsible for gathering educational statistics. Its role expanded in the 1960's with the passage of major federal education initiatives, especially the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, which included the participation of private and religious school students and staff for the first time in a major education law. The federal role in education was expanded in order to provide special nationwide services which the Congress felt were not being addressed in a consistent and positive manner by the various state governments. At this time, Education was part of the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare.

In addition, the Constitution's First Amendment says that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..."and the Fourteenth Amendment says: "... nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty or property without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." The United States Supreme Court has interpreted the Constitution to mean that the Fourteenth Amendment extends the First Amendment religion clauses - most especially for schools the establishment of religion clause - to the States. It may be of interest to note that Australia has a clause in its Constitution which is identical to the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment, but has a completely opposite interpretation as to how it affects private and religious schools in Australia, where government funding of private and religious schools is permitted. In addition, many states - about 40 at the height of opposition to private and religious schools - in the late nineteenth century adopted sections in their State Constitutions what are generally called "Blaine" Amendments which explicitly ban financial and other assistance to private and/or religious schools. Some of these Amendments have been removed or modified over the years, but many still exist. In contrast to this situation, there are a number of states that have instituted extensive programs of assistance that provide services to private and religious school students and staff. The U.S. Department of Education's Office of Non-public Education has published manuals outlining how private and religious school students and staff can participate in federal education programs (1996) and how these institutions are regulated in each of the 50 states (1997). The United States Catholic Conference's (USCC) Department of Education recently (1998) published its own manual describing how Catholic school administrators can help their students and staff benefit from these federal education programs and services.

In 1925, after the State of Oregon adopted a law requiring all children to be educated in public schools the U.S. Supreme Court, in the case of Pierce v. Society of Sisters, ruled that private schools have a right to exist and that parents have the right to direct the upbringing and education of their children; while the State has a right to reasonably regulate schools, including private and religious ones. Over the years the Court has addressed a variety of issues touching on private and religious schools, their students, teachers and parents and what may be permissible assistance to them. This area is still unclear, and there have been some recent shifts in the Court's judgements in this area leading some legal scholars believe that the Court may have opened the door to some greater flexibility in interpreting how some assistance to private, and more specifically religious schools, may not always be precluded. The Supreme Court, in this current term, is scheduled to hear a number of cases that may lead to a clarification of this situation. Not being a constitutional lawyer, I have to leave the implications of such thinking to others, but I can hope that these optimists are correct.


Future Challenges for Private and Religious Schools:
As we prepare for the beginning of the 21st century, private and religious schools in the United States face some significant challenges if they are to continue to provide a quality education to the children whose parents choose to select them.

First, staffing of schools with qualified teachers is a critical problem in all schools. This is a major problem for private schools as they generally have lower salaries and fewer benefits than those in public schools. The number of Catholic school administrators reporting teachers leaving to work in higher paying public schools has been increasing over the past few years. Private school leaders will need to improve their efforts to recruit, retain and upgrade the professionalism of their staffs. This is especially true in efforts to recruit teachers with the appropriate background for teaching in a Catholic school. The lack of Catholic colleges and universities in parts of the South and West aggravates this problem. Again, marketing the awareness of the special qualities and mission of these schools will be needed to attract qualified and dedicated teachers.

Leadership training is closely related to the staffing problem, especially in Catholic schools. The large number of sisters, brothers and priests who used to staff Catholic schools are declining and getting older. Twenty years ago over 90 percent of teachers and administrators in Catholic schools came from these groups. Today that reality no longer exists, and the figures are actually reversed in the teaching area where now 92% of teachers are members of the laity. We still have a large number of these people in administrative jobs, but replacements will be needed and procedures to train them need to be set up. This is especially important if the unique identity of the schools is to be maintained and improved and if negative images often used against these schools are to be overcome. Leadership training programs in Catholic colleges and universities as well as provided by national professional organizations will have to be improved and expanded. The challenge of maintaining their unique mission, identity and commitment to excellence can only be overcome with well educated, dedicated leaders on all levels of administration and teaching.

Private and religious schools will need to have a sound financial base that draws from the broad community they serve, if they are to continue to offer quality programs with qualified teachers and administrators. This is especially true for those schools committed to continuing to make this kind of education available to the poor and educationally disadvantaged. If a solid financial base is absent there is a danger that the poor will not be able to take advantage of these schools and could easily lead to the development of a more elitist school community. In their "Reform" document, the Catholic Bishops set a goal for children and teachers in private and religious schools when they say:

When services that are aimed at improving the educational environment - especially for those most at risk - are available to students and teachers in public schools, these services should also be available to students and teachers in private and religious school. These individuals should not be penalized for choosing to enroll or work in these schools since they also serve the common good of our nation (p.8).

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