An Alternative to Chaos

By Otto Friedrich

See everything,

Overlook a great deal,

Improve a little.

So runs a saying of Pope John XXIII's, affixed to a wall at Cardinal Hayes Catholic High School in New York's tough South Bronx. The school tries to live up to the prescription. No hats can be worn inside Cardinal Hayes school, nor is there any room for blue jeans or sneakers, beards or mustaches, profanity, alcohol or "bad attitudes." Bad attitudes involve anything that contradicts the school's motto: "For God and country."

For many years Cardinal Hayes was, like most of the nation's Catholic schools, a training ground for the offspring of European immigrants. The student body of 3,000 was 98% white, all Reillys and Bonnannos and Pepchinskis. Today 64% of the 1,150 students are Hispanic, 35% black. The transformation is partly a reflection of the changing community: white flight has long since darkened the face of the South Bronx. But it also represents a choice made by growing numbers of minority parents searching for an alternative to the chaos of inner-city public schools.

The trend is visible around the country. In 1970 only 10.8% of students enrolled in U.S. Catholic parochial schools were minorities; today they constitute 21.8%. The majority of the black students (64%) are not Catholic, but that does not seem to deter their parents. "I tell non-Catholic parents of incoming students that religion is an integral part of the school's curriculum," says Monsignor Thomas McCormack, principal of Cardinal Hayes. "They are pleased. That is one of the reasons they come to us."

At a time when many parents despair of their children's learning much of anything in public schools, or even being safe there, the strict moral and religious values, discipline and order that typify Catholic schools seem to have wide appeal. So do the enhanced prospects for students. Nationwide, 83% of the graduates of Catholic high schools go on to two- or four-year colleges, compared with 52% for public school grads. "There's no question that at almost every level, students in parochial schools perform better than those in public schools," says Emily Feistritzer of the National Center for Educational Information. Among the indications of superiority:

-- A national survey of reading ability found that on a scale of 0 to 500, parochial school fourth-graders scored eight points better than their public school counterparts. In eighth grade they did eleven points better, and in eleventh grade, ten.

-- A survey of dropout rates in grades 10 to 12 found the number hitting 14.3% in public schools, only 3.4% in parochial schools.

-- Class size in parochial high schools has dropped from 19 to 15 pupils per teacher; in public schools it remains at 17.9.

There are, of course, disadvantages too. A growing number of teachers in Catholic parochial schools are lay men and women who are less experienced, younger and lower paid than their public school counterparts. And there is the cost. The mean annual tuition for a U.S. Catholic high school comes to $1,680 -- a considerable stretch for many inner-city parents. "They simply do without in order to send the kids here," says Sister Patricia Clune of Atlanta's St. Anthony's School. "We offer a disciplined environment and quality education in the religious setting the parents want."

The discipline is no longer a matter of rulers on knuckles, but rather the prospect of getting ahead in the world. "I told my mother I wanted to come here because I wanted to learn and be somebody," says Albert Calderon, 15, a sophomore at Cardinal Hayes. His mother, Mirtha Astacio, is a cleaning woman, and her brother helps her pay the tuition. Albert's aspiration: "I want to be what you call a boss."

Pope John XXIII would understand.

With reporting by Wayne Svoboda/New York