Location
KU 331
Start Date
12-7-2013 12:45 PM
End Date
12-7-2013 1:45 PM
Description
Today, many Catholic schools struggle with issues of identity, funding, staffing, and curriculum. This presentation examines the experience of one major American archdiocese as schools shifted from religious to lay staffing in the 1960s and 1970s through closures and consolidations that continue to this day. The reasons behind the archdiocese's failure to plan for or to manage the shift to lay staffing is explored, as is the apparent decision to sacrifice Catholic schools for secular social ends during the 1974 public school desegregation crisis. Overall, this session provides some discussion points for how the crisis in Catholic schools came about, and how understanding the origin of the crisis illuminates a path forward.
Included in
Lessons from Our Recent History: K-12 Catholic Schools in Boston, 1965-2010
KU 331
Today, many Catholic schools struggle with issues of identity, funding, staffing, and curriculum. This presentation examines the experience of one major American archdiocese as schools shifted from religious to lay staffing in the 1960s and 1970s through closures and consolidations that continue to this day. The reasons behind the archdiocese's failure to plan for or to manage the shift to lay staffing is explored, as is the apparent decision to sacrifice Catholic schools for secular social ends during the 1974 public school desegregation crisis. Overall, this session provides some discussion points for how the crisis in Catholic schools came about, and how understanding the origin of the crisis illuminates a path forward.