The Rev. Daniel R. Heischman, D.Min., Executive Director
Recently I read the results of a very interesting study done by two professors at Notre Dame Law School on the impact of a Catholic school’s presence in urban neighborhoods.* Specifically, the professors studied the differing rates of crime in neighborhoods where a Catholic school remained, as compared with neighborhoods where—as increasingly and dramatically is the case in many urban areas—a Catholic school had been replaced by a charter school, all in the city of Chicago. Utilizing data collected from police statistics in various beats in Chicago, they found lower serious crime rates in those beats that had a Catholic school in operation than from those without one. The study also found that a charter school replacing a Catholic school does not “replicate Catholic schools’ positive community benefits.” A Catholic school, in their view, seems to help suppress crime in a way that a charter school does not.
I do not pretend to understand all of the nuances implied in this study, nor make any judgments about the value of charter schools as opposed to Catholic schools. The study does lead me to wonder about the clear but often unarticulated value of a religious school presence in any neighborhood. What is it about a religious school that might have that calming, perhaps clarifying effect, an effect that even some very fine charter schools do not have?
So, too, it makes me think about how important it is for us to consider our schools’ presence in the community, wherever it may be. A good many of our schools have not had altogether harmonious relationships with their neighborhood—the scars many school heads bear from zoning meetings and neighborhood gatherings is testimony to that!—while other schools may point to a more harmonious, indeed pivotal relationship with their neighborhoods. Many of those schools that have been at odds with the surrounding neighborhood may also nonetheless play such a pivotal role. Regardless, there is such a thing as “school presence,” I believe, in the community, and all of the members of our school communities—students, faculty, staff, administrators, parents—need to be reminded of that presence. Particularly in a culture that can be very suspicious of institutions, the care with which we are a presence in the community is increasingly important. Who knows! We may be more important to the neighborhood than we realize!
* Nicole Stelle Garnet and Margaret F. Brinig, “Catholic Schools, Charter Schools, and Urban Neighborhoods,” University of Chicago Law Review, 2012.