by Msgr. Jamie Gigantiello, vicar for development
The answer to the question posed in the headline needs more words than I can fit into a single article. In the Brooklyn Diocese, simply stated, Catholic education is thriving inside and outside the classroom. There is no need to discuss statistics, other than to say the major educational comparisons to our public school counterparts demonstrate our lead over them in state test scores, graduation rates and college acceptance rates. And I have yet to mention the spiritual and moral foundation our schools and academies provide. How do you benchmark that?
John Murphy’s June 11 article “Academy Taught Families To Live The Gospel” described the tragic closing of Pope John Paul II Family Academy (PJPFA) in Bushwick but incorrectly left many readers with a sense of hopelessness that is the unfortunate consequence of misinformation. Allow me to set the record straight.
Mr. Murphy writes, “Parents will stress the inability to pay private school tuition.” This statement is directly misleading. Thanks to the overwhelming generosity of an anonymous benefactor, every student at PJPFA was offered the opportunity to apply to a neighboring Catholic school of their choice and will continue to enjoy free tuition through the eighth grade. At this time, 122 former PJPFA students will continue to be enrolled in Catholic schools in the fall, staying in the ranks of the nearly 43,000 students enrolled in Catholic grammar and high schools in Brooklyn and Queens.
It is never easy to close a school, uprooting students and families. The closing of PJPFA was not the result of declining enrollment; rather, it was due to a number of outside factors, most relevant being the cost of keeping up with a declining building infrastructure.
Tough decisions must be made. It was unanimously agreed that investing in children is more important than physical plant upkeep. After all, Catholic education is not about bricks and mortar. It is about preparing youngsters to fulfill their God-given potential. That’s where Futures In Education plays a vital role – serving as a lifeline to financially disadvantaged families, keeping our diocesan schools thriving.
Futures’ mandate is straightforward: No child shall be denied a Catholic education due to financial constraints. Our “Be An Angel to a Student” program is thriving as we have raised over $1 million annually over the last two years (the first time that has been accomplished in Futures’ history). Overall, Futures has provided nearly 6,000 students with close to $8 million in scholarship aid this year.
As St. John’s University freshman and Angel recipient Jessica Parker said at our Angels reception in March at Citi Field, “Without my Angel, I would not have the same set of morals and religious outlook that I obtained in Catholic school. Catholic school gave me something special, something irreplaceable.”
I hope you will consider becoming an Angel and supporting Futures In Education through our variety of fundraising initiatives throughout the year. Please visit http://www.futuresineducation.org or call us at 718-965-7308.