Many of the "predominantly minority children" in those closed schools weren't even Catholic to begin with, so I see the closure of these schools as little more than a formal acknowledgement that the Catholic Church simply doesn't have a reason to be in these neighborhoods right now.
This scene is being repeated in older urban areas all over the country.
My child is not Catholic but is in a Catholic school - I would not do it any other way - and we fundraise like the other parents. As I see it , many of the "new immigrants" will not send their kids to Catholic schools even if they have the money.
Most Catholic schools do indeed perform better than public schools academically, but the "social studies" curriculum is indistinguishable from public schools. If anyone is truly interested in providing a Catholic education for their children, homeschooling is usually the only way to be sure.
To the delight of the Catholic bashers who justify their bigotry by feigning concern for other issues.
But bottom line is this:
Quite the contrary. Catholic schools still deliver a far bigger bang for the education buck than the public schools.
Would you say such a silly thing about Catholic hospitals in non-Catholic areas? Charity is Charity.
The trouble with Catholic systems like the schools and hospitals is that they weren't designed for paid staff. Dedicated and willingly poor nuns and monks handled the work. Now the few nuns left, rather than recruiting more teaching and nursing nuns, generally complain that the Catholic teachers aren't unionized and well-paid.