As a Canadian Catholic school advocate, you may know a lot about the Catholic School system in this country. But in the media we often see US Catholic schools depicted, and you’ve probably noticed a few differences.
Both Canada and the US share this common foundation: from the beginning, religious institutions took up the job of educating young people in North America when governments didn’t have the resources to provide public education.
But despite our many similarities, the Catholic school systems of Canada and the United States have taken different paths in their history and development. Why? How did Catholic schools develop differently in the United States? How are public and private schools funded? What is the Catholic culture of these schools like?
In this article, we’ll outline a brief history of the development of Catholic schools in the US as well as the way they function now and how that contrasts with our own Canadian Catholic school system.
Acknowledgement
Before we begin, it’s important to acknowledge that many unique and valuable elements of indigenous language and culture were lost or abolished in the act of colonization and Westernization in which Catholics schools were active, in addition to the countless indigenous lives that were lost through disease, war, unjust practices and systems, and especially in the tragedy of residential schools.
These injustices were a tragedy that all Catholic Canadians must continue to mourn and work to redress. Please see resources such as the CCCB’s Indigenous Peoples’ page and visit the National Center for Truth & Reconciliation website for more on this important part of our history.
Rejecting Protestant Influence: The History of the US Catholic School System
For the most part, early America was heavily influenced by Protestantism. The pilgrims who traveled from England and settled the original colonies were Protestant, with few exceptions. This religious influence extended into the public schools, where explicitly or implicitly, Protestant faith and values were taught.
Many Catholics who settled in the colonies feared the non-Catholic influences in the education systems of the day, and sought to establish separate Catholic schools in order to raise their children with their faith. Soon after the United States declared independence, a decision had to be made.
To Fund or Not to Fund?
Here lies the key difference between the Catholic schools of the United States and Canada: funding. Unlike Canada, where the right to found a separate Catholic school system is a constitutional right in some provinces, US federal lawmakers in the newly founded nation were largely against any public funding to support Catholic education.
This sentiment continued as the nation grew. In the 1840s, when nearly one million Irish Catholics emigrated to North America to avoid the potato famine, anti-Catholic sentiment in the United States increased even more, leading most states to legally forbid any tax money from funding Catholic schools.
Founded with Local Connections
This left the work of Catholic education, not up to a well-funded national school system, but to a variety of local parishes and religious communities. In different regions, different groups founded schools. To this day, US Catholic schools may be run by an individual parish, a group of parishes, a religious community, or a diocese.
In both the US and Canada, Catholic students were primarily educated by the religious sisters, brothers, and priests in the parish or missionaries to that region. The legacy of clergy and religious educators in Catholic schools of both nations remains strong, though most educational and administrative positions are now held by lay persons.
Legal Support: The History of Canadian Catholic School System
The history of Catholic schools in Canada goes back further than the history of Canada itself, to a time when the cultural and religious influences of Europe were first brought to this continent. But legally, Catholic Education was entrenched under Section 93 of the British North America Act of 1867 and reaffirmed under Section 29 of the Charter of Rights as part of the Constitutional Act of 1982. Without this protection of denominational schools, Confederation would not have been achieved, and the Supreme Court of Canada has upheld this pillar of our nation (CCSTA resources: source).
While religious institutions were the primary educators of young people in Canada early in its history, in the 1800s, the general attitudes toward education changed. Many believed that the responsibility for education was the responsibility of the state, rather than individuals who could pay tuition fees for their children or make charitable donations. This led to the creation of tax-based funding, which was usually collected by schools or school boards themselves.
This included the residential school system, where the government and religious institutions collaborated to forcibly remove young indigenous people from their homes in order to educate them according to exclusively Western practices, which had enormous and irreversible consequences on Indigenous peoples and culture. These schools operated from the late 1800’s through the late 1900s.
In the 1960s, there was a major push to remove religious education from the public schools in Canada. Most Catholic schools were able to retain their faith-based educational approaches, though many were influenced by this public sentiment and removed much of their religious content from their curriculums.
Protection for Minority Rights
Historically, the Canadian Constitution was founded on respect for minority linguistic and educational rights and continues to defend them within the context of our human rights tradition. Stemming from this history, support for Canadian Catholic School minority rights can be seen as support for all religious minority rights. The Parliament of Canada has a tradition of upholding those minority and educational rights in the Constitution, including publicly funded minority schools as described therein (CCSTA resources: source).
Today in the US
Public vs. Private
In the US, there are two basic designations for schools. Public schools are federally funded and run by a government entity, and private schools are generally run by private school boards and are not subject to the same public oversight, though they may need to meet some requirements of the state where they operate.
The US’ public school model is largely similar to the Canadian Catholic school model: regional school boards direct the activities of schools within their boundaries. All public schools are subject to regional requirements and are funded by federal and local governments via taxes.
Private Schools
Private schools typically include religion-based schools and charter schools. Religion-based schools vary widely to include many faith expressions. Private schools typically charge tuition, and also rely heavily on fundraising in order to support their work. They rarely receive any funding from governmental organizations, though they may apply for and receive grants for particular educational endeavors. Charter schools, on the other hand, are legally and financially autonomous schools without tuition, religious affiliation, or selective student admissions which operate as a private business, apart from many state regulations.
Who Attends Catholic Schools?
According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, as of 2019, approximately 3% of all students in the United States attend a Catholic school, while an additional 7% attend other non-Catholic private schools, 2% are homeschooled, and the remaining 88% attend public schools. That’s more than 2 million Catholic students that attend schools from preschool to twelfth grade.
As of 2016 research published by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), the minority population of Catholic schools was 16.1% Latino; 7.7% Black/African American; 5.5% Asian American; and 5.9% Multiracial. Also as of 2016, 17.4% of Catholic school students were not Catholic.
Under the Bishop’s Authority
The United States’ Catholic school system is not a unified national system. Rather, regional or diocesan school leadership groups or boards are loosely bound by the principles of Catholic education and the guidance of the USCCB.
Typically, governance in a Catholic school is exercised by a local Catholic school board that reports to the bishop, who sometimes acts as the superintendent, sits on the board as an executive member, or has a delegate on the board as his representative. Like all the actions of the Church within a given diocese, the local bishop is the ultimate authority.
Catholic Practice in US Schools
Catholic practice among students varies widely from school to school, as is true in Canadian schools. Almost all US Catholic schools include religion class and regular access to the sacraments. Much like Canada, some schools claim the religious and spiritual aspects of their school as central to their identity, while others acknowledge the importance of their Catholic foundation while emphasizing other aspects more strongly, such as strong academics.
In the US, Catholic schooling appears to be significant in the lives of those who later profess a permanent religious vocation. In a recent survey of those who professed final vows in religious life in 2022, “nearly half (48%) reported attending Catholic elementary school, and 36% continued their Catholic education into high school and college,” which is more than triple the general population of Catholic adults.
Conclusion
While there are many differences between the US and Canadian Catholic School Systems, especially in funding and government support, we share many similarities: a long-standing tradition of clergy and religious who were devoted to the education of the young, a foundation in local communities, and a desire for educators to pass on the most precious treasure we have: the deposit of faith.
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