As much as this both distresses and outrages me, it can also be viewed as a good news/bad news scenario.
Many of us know that the majority of parachial schools have long since ceased to be Catholic in any real way. A large number of them in this and other major cities cater to a mostly non-Catholic student body. Most schools teach - if not outright heresy & error, at least a very badly watered down version of Catholicism.
Along with these now built-in problems is the financial issue. These schools cost the local parish and the diocese huge sums of money to operate - AND they do not teach the faith. So, we are being robbed to pay for this charade.
This is largely the result of the nuns having burned their bras in the 60s, and refusing to teach - or demanding to be paid real salaries (despite the fact that they are on a vow of material poverty!). Hence the need for the hiring of a salaried all lay faculty.
There is also the monetary "black hole syndrome". Many pastors who have sticky fingers regularly will "launder" money through the school.....or will outright steal the Diocesan subsidy to run the school. While your local Chancery office may wish that I not write this - it is an open secret among the apostate members of the clergy. It is a joke to them.
So - as much as I do not wish to see the disappearance of the schools. There are really only two choices left: either make them function as Catholic schools for Catholic children, teaching and nurturing the faith in the young..........or shut them down.
I will give you one guess as to which of those two options my (your) Lord Bishop will opt for...........
I'm sorry inner city schools are closing. We've got that situation here too. But there just aren't enough Catholics living there anymore. And I'm sorry to say that is where many of the religious teachers and principals are - there is little to no evangelization going on in those schools - but lots of tolerance and diversity. Another situation I notice is in some of Philadelphia's more livable neighborhoods, the parents send their children to the suburban Catholic schools, rather than to their own parish.
If I may chime in here....
I was oblivious to the extent of the crisis in the Church up until a few years ago. Sending my child to Catholic school was a loud wake up call. I was forced to pull her out because what was being taught and promulgated there was endangering her budding faith. (oh the stories I could tell you)
If they don't teach the faith, let them close. In the state that they are in now they do far more damage than good, IMHO.