Chicago Catholics To Reform Their Schools' Funding

By Jeff Archer

Chicago's Roman Catholic Archdiocese plans to map out a series of radical reforms to ensure the future viability of its schools, including a push for state financial support for parents who choose a private education for their children.

A team to be appointed this month will examine a wide range of strategies aimed at raising teacher salaries, keeping tuition down at inner-city schools, and responding to the population shifts of recent years. The team will address what Cardinal Francis George, the archbishop of Chicago, called "the practical impossibility of maintaining the present system with only the present formula for support."

The planning follows the most extensive self-examination ever of the 320 schools that make up the largest parochial school system--and the 11th largest of all school systems--in the country. Detailing the impact of demographic, market, and economic forces, the report shows a 131,000-student system "remarkable in its achievements, but encountering serious...