Inner-city kids in Connecticut losing Catholic school choice

Connecticut is on the verge of ending Catholic school choice for inner-city high school children in the Archdiocese of Hartford for good. This would require inner-city Black and Hispanic students to find transportation or be bused to white communities to find a Catholic school education.

Imagine if the state’s public schools denied innercity children the opportunity to get an education but allowed that opportunity for students from white communities — the nation would be up in arms. That is what the Catholic Church and their Catholic schools are doing. They are allowing white communities to have an opportunity at a Catholic school education with neighborhood high schools while denying the same opportunity to Black and Hispanic students by closing all their inner-city Catholic high schools in the Archdiocese of Hartford and leaving only one open in all of Connecticut.

This was done largely by closing the feeder Catholic middle schools that were in proximity to the inner-city Catholic high school. This allowed for a self-fulfilling prophecy with the innercity Catholic high school on a predictable course to have a declining enrollment. Then the COVID pandemic hurt those in urban areas extremely hard. This is what occurred in Waterbury’s Sacred Heart High School, my alma mater, a school that gave me an opportunity to go to Yale University and become the first Black from an Ivy League undergraduate school to become a member of Congress.

With the exception of Kolbe Cathedral in Bridgeport’s Archdiocese, all other Catholic high schools would be in affluent white communities. They have a right to segregate themselves like the schools in the South did in the last century, which prompted the Brown vs Board of Education decision, but like Bob Jones University in the 1980s, which also condoned discriminatory practices, they cannot be allowed to receive federal funding, and in most states — state funding.

I am pleased the Waterbury chapter of the NAACP is seeking to halt this atrocity. They must use the judicial system to get justice. They must stop government support for those who break civil rights laws.

The graduation rates at Catholic high schools in Connecticut are much higher than in most inner-city public schools. The prospects for college scholarships are much better from Catholic high schools, and the values that a Catholic high school education offers are superior as well in my opinion.

For example, more crimes are committed by inner-city students in public school than those students who attend a Catholic high school.

Yet, the Catholic high schools for inner-city children in Connecticut are on the verge of extinction, nearly ending school choice for high school inner-city kids.

The Sacred Heart High School alumni and community have done fundraising, have a plan to increase the number of students, and are developing a long-term solution.

The federal government’s COVID relief fund, U.S. Department of Education funding that can go to private Catholic schools and the COVID Governor’s Emergency Education Relief funds as well as other funds can help keep the school alive. More COVID relief is coming soon, ironically, to keep schools (public and private) open.

I pray and trust that the white, Black, and Hispanic communities will rise and support fairness and a society with equal opportunity for all.

Gary A. Franks served three terms as U.S. representative for Connecticut’s 5th District. He was the first Black Republican elected to the House in nearly 60 years and New England’s first Black member of the House. He is host of the podcast We Speak Frankly. Follow him on Twitter @GaryFranks.