It was tried over a hundred years ago by the archbishop of St. Paul, John Ireland. Ironically, Milwaukee, now the center for public/religious school collaboration, was the center of opposition lead by the Milwaukee archbishops, Michael Heiss and Frederick Katzer.
The 1884 Baltimore bishops’ council required that parishes establish schools to educate a flood of European immigrants. But Archbishop John Ireland did not want ethnic Catholic schools standing in the way of creating an “American” Catholic church.
On July 10, 1890, Ireland shocked everyone in a speech to the National Educational Association convention in St. Paul.
“I am a friend and an advocate of the state school. In the circumstances of the present time I uphold the parish school. I sincerely wish that the need for it did not exist. I would have all schools for the children of the people to be state schools.”
Ireland proposed two possible solutions: First, the state could pay for basic education in religious schools. The state would set the standards, and students would be required to pass state examinations. The church would pay for the religious instruction. Second, religious schools could be converted into public schools. At the end of the school day, the buildings would revert back to the churches and religious instruction would begin.
Even the Milwaukee diocese had a number of programs similar to Ireland’s proposals, but these were usually of low profile and under the table. What Ireland proposed was to make public/private school collaboration the norm and abandon the Baltimore principles.
In 1891, Ireland found two financially troubled Catholic schools in his diocese at Faribault and Stillwater. The schools were turned over to the public system during the day, and Catholic instruction began in the schools after school hours. Parents could pick from any of the city’s schools in one of this nation’s first experiments in open enrollment and choice.
Within months, Frederick Katzer was appointed archbishop of Milwaukee. Ireland attempted to make another Irishman Milwaukee’s next archbishop and took Katzer’s appointment as a signal that Ireland was not being well received in Rome.
Milwaukee German newspapers went after Ireland with a vengeance. Wrote one Milwaukee priest, “Abp. Ireland has lost his faith” and demanded Rome take action. Katzer was making his own objections known to the Vatican. Ireland headed to Rome.
Pope Leo XIII was more concerned with threats to the Papal States and wanted military support from the secular French government but French church officials were monarchists. Ireland could tell the French clergy how to build Catholic institutions within a secular society. Leo sent him on a whirlwind speaking engagement in Paris, and Ireland returned to American with Leo’s blessing in hand.
The conservative American bishops had to change the mind of Archbishop Satolli, the Pope’s American emissary. Satolli had issued fourteen points on American education which endorsed Ireland’s public/private school collaboration. Since Leo had already given his blessing, Satolli figured the bishops would accept his pronouncements. He could not have been more wrong.
Katzer accused Ireland of falsification of cablegrams and planting stories that opposing the fourteen points was like opposing the pope, himself.
Both sides appealed to Pope Leo. But Leo left both the Baltimore council and fourteen points stand. In short, Leo gave no direction.
Within two years of the school collaborations, both Faribault and Stillwater schools abandoned the experiment due to infighting between Catholics and school officials. No other school system wanted to adopt this experiment. No other bishop wanted to advance it.
Catholics could not accept public standards and oversight. Republicans wanted to outlaw government aid to religious schools. In 1894, New York passed such a constitutional amendment. Other communities began withdrawing tax dollars supporting religious education. When the dust settled, both public and religious educators had pulled back from any major collaboration. It would remain so for the next one hundred years.
Lessons for Milwaukee Choice:
Both the Faribault and Stillwater schools required that the crosses come down and teachers follow the public curriculum. Religion came at the end of the day.
Richard Peters wrote his dissertation on Ireland’s school experiment for his doctorate at Marquette University. Peters believes that the compromises became too great. Religion was compartmentalized to one hour a day. The Catholic parents ultimately ended the experiment. “I think Ireland was willing to continue with the compartmentalization” if it meant keeping these schools opened, says Peters.
Brother Bob Smith was the principal at Messmer High when the concept of a state choice program was first proposed along the lines of Ireland’s experiment.
“We were offered that, and we said absolutely not, that our Catholicity is ingrained in everything we do.”
But Peters believes that Choice and Catholic education may be incompatible. An “opt out” provision allows parents to exempt their children from the school’s religious instruction. This can only be done if the schools compartmentalize religion. Peters saw that some Choice Catholic schools still integrated religion throughout their curriculum. It would take only one parent going to court stating that the school is not the honoring the opt out provision.
Smith concedes this possibility but believes that the Choice schools would prevail in court. In practice, Smith sees few parents exercising the opt out provision. If parents want a secular education, they simply pick a secular school.
But it raises questions whether some Catholic schools are making too many compromises in order to fund programs and increase enrollments.
Many pastors are bothered by parents who send their children to Catholic schools but never attend Sunday Mass. Smith is perplexed that even some Catholic parents at Messmer asked that their children not participate in the school’s yearly retreat.
Some Lutheran schools require parents to participate in services and adult Christian formation classes as a condition for their children to attend the Lutheran schools. Father Steven Avella, a history professor at Marquette University, points to the Assembly of God schools with similar requirements and believes that many Catholic schools are in trouble because they may not be Catholic enough.
Brother Smith understands the problem and states that the archbishop is giving the “highest priority” to insure that Catholic schools have a clear “Catholic identity.”
Avella says that ultimately Catholics may say, “We want our religion front and center. We want our kids to pray every day. We want them going to church, their families going to church. I think the system will refound itself.”
(An edited version of this article appeared in Milwaukee’s Catholic Herald, July 27, 2006)
|
Publications 
