page_title: Catholic school
section_title: United States
hierarchical_section_title: Catholic school / North America / United States
caption_attribution_description: Front of en:St. Thomas High School (Houston)
context_page_description: A Catholic school is a parochial school or education ministry of the Catholic Church. As of 2011, the Catholic Church operates the world's largest non-governmental school system. In 2016, the church supported 43,800 secondary schools, and 95,200 primary schools. Catholic schools participate in the evangelizing mission of the Church, integrating religious education as a core subject within their curriculum.
context_section_description: Catholic schools are the largest non-public school system in the United States. In 2010, 2 million students attended 6,980 schools. 331 of these are private. Catholicism of schools in the United States was first established during the 19th century with the arrival of English immigrants. Catholic schools in the USA are significant in that Catholicism is seen to have been critical in developing the American culture. The development and enrollment of Americans into Catholic schools increased after World War II, Post-war development and Cold War in the battle against anti-religious Communism. By the time of 1964–1965, Catholic schools accounted for nearly 89% of all private school attendance and 12% of all school-age children in school (K-12) in the USA. The number of religious (priests, brothers, and sisters) was at its highest, allowing schools to offer qualified teachers at minimal costs, meaning that most children in the 1940s and 1950s attended their parish school free of charge. Since then, there has been a large decline in enrollment predominantly believed to be due to “suburbanization, liberalization of education and the rise of the Catholic middle-class.” In the United States, Catholic schools are accredited by independent and/or state agencies, and teachers are generally certified. Schools are supported through tuition payments, donations, and fund raising charities.
  In contrast to its public school counterpart, Catholic urbanization has made more significant achievements in poor areas than wealthier areas. Holy Angels, for example has become one of the strongest academic institutions in the country; it serves the Kenwood, Oakland neighborhoods of South Side Chicago, Illinois, where 3 out of 4 people live in poverty and violent crime is frequent.
  The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops listed six key responsibilities of Catholic Schools. They are
  Encouraging and supporting efforts in Catholic education by fostering the distribution and implementation of both universal Church documents on education as well as related documents developed by the bishops of the United States
  Supporting educational efforts in the Church in the United States by developing policies, guidelines, and resources for use by bishops in their dioceses
  Providing consultation on educational issues when requested, including advising and representing the bishops
  Collaborating with the Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis regarding evangelization and catechesis in Catholic schools and universities
  Providing support and advocacy in federal public policy on behalf of Catholic educational institutions from pre-school through high school levels
  Bringing to Catholic education the perspectives and concerns of other cultures and people with special pastoral needs through collaboration with other committees/offices
  In 2015, the Inner-city Scholarship Fund run by the Archdiocese of New York announced the largest-ever gift of private money to Catholic schooling. Christine and Stephen Schwarzmann gave $40 million to an endowment that will provide 2,900 children per year with scholarships.
caption: St. Thomas High School in Houston, Texas
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