Monday, April 28, 2008
SAVING CATHOLIC SCHOOLS
In an article by Kathryn Lopez, editor of National Review Online, she writes about President Bush's concern about inner-city Catholic schools closing in large numbers dumping poverty stricken students into a failed public system. Lopez would like to see McCain take up this "human rights" cause:
You’ve no doubt heard about Catholic school closings. According to the White House, between 2000 and 2006, almost 1,200 faith-based schools closed in America’s inner cities. The closings have thus far affected nearly 400,000 students in the United States. President Bush calls the alarming numbers a “crisis.” At the summit, he said: “They’re places of learning where people are getting a good education and they’re beginning to close, to the extent that 1,200 of them have closed. The impact of school closings extends far beyond the children that have to leave these classrooms. The closings place an added burden on inner-city public schools that are struggling. And these school closings impoverish our country by really denying a future of children a critical source of learning not only about how to read and write, but about social justice.”...
Faith-based — often Catholic — schools offer hope to many inner-city children in America. These schools change lives. These schools could distinguish an otherwise Wonder Bread politician (albeit an American hero) from a conventional liberal propping up a preacher of hate and spouting that same old backward song of dependent despair. Sen. McCain, lead by following the civil rights leader of your party.
