Who Killed the Catholic University?

Who Killed the Catholic University? by James F. Keating at First Things. The education a Catholic university offers is informed by what the Church has learned from millennia spent in contemplation of the God of Jesus Christ. Catholic universities are “called to explore courageously the riches of Revelation and of nature so that the united endeavor of intelligence and faith will enable people to come to the full measure of their humanity, created in the image and likeness of God, renewed even more marvelously, after sin, in Christ, and called to shine forth in the light of the Spirit.” Read

Lead NASA Spacewalk Instructor Says Catholic Education, Faith Are Foundation of Her Success by OSV News. “One of the things I really appreciate about my Catholic education is how it put Christ at the forefront of our lives every day. I’m so thankful for that. We had Mass, we had religion classes and we started every class with prayer. And that emphasized to me that Christ is the most important part of life. I still live that very much today.” [Allissa Battocletti Noffke] continues to count on that relationship with Christ as her life leads her into the unknown in two ways, one professional and one personal. Read

High School Juniors, Seniors Invited To Enter USCCB Religious Liberty Essay by OSV News. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee for Religious Liberty, along with the USCCB Secretariat of Catholic Education and the Our Sunday Visitor Institute, is hosting a religious liberty essay contest for high school juniors and seniors. The contest, titled “Witnesses to Freedom,” requires participants to “share the story of a witness to freedom.” Read

To Make Reading Great Again, Schools Must Go Back to Teaching Phonics by Auguste Neyrat at The Federalist. In the pages of The New York Times, Nicholas Kristof recently took on the problem of illiteracy among American students. According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), two-thirds of fourth graders across the country are not reading at grade level…. Those of us teaching English can attest that this issue is not limited to fourth graders, but can be easily seen at all grade levels, even in the Gifted and Talented and Advanced Placement classes. Read

Overschooled and Undereducated by Anthony Esolen at Crisis Magazine. The purpose of schooling—which is not the same as education—is to encourage people to express confident platitudes, which they are pleased to call their opinions, about things they know nothing of. This is far worse than ignorance. Read

5 Ways to Boost Your Teen’s Mental Health by Jim Schroeder at Aleteia. Depression rates have doubled in the past decade for all teens. While there is increasing evidence that social media and mobile devices are associated with these pernicious trends, it is clear that there are also other serious factors at play. And what we are finding strongly suggests that even if we could provide a qualified therapist for every single distressed teen (which we can’t), this wouldn’t address core issues at play that need to be part of the mental health solution. Read

University of Notre Dame to Host Event on ‘Queer Holiness’ by Spencer Lindquist at Breitbart. The University of Notre Dame’s gender studies program is hosting a talk with the author of a book titled “Queer Holiness.” Set to take place on March 23rd, the event titled “Queer Holiness” will focus on “the gift of LGBTQI people to the church” and will feature Charles Bell, the author of a book by the same name. Read

Montgomery County Embraces Stasi-Lite Public Education by Michael Rubin at Washington Examiner. While discouraging "hitting challenges" may be a good idea, prohibiting freeze tag seems both cruel and inane. Students also report that the game four square is out after the ball banged into players' knees. Soccer, the source of the visits to the nurse that sparked the administrative ban, is also out. It is unclear what classmates can do that might be fun once they outgrow hopscotch and the playground equipment. Read

Group of Jewish Parents Sue State of California for Equal Access to Special Needs Education by Tyler Arnold at Catholic News Agency. A group of Jewish parents filed a lawsuit Monday against the California Department of Education, calling for the state to provide religious schools with equal access to special needs education funding for their students. Under California law, federal and state special education funding is available to public schools and secular private schools. However, state law prohibits these funds from going to private religious schools. Read

Sarah Huckabee Sanders Signs Arkansas Universal School Choice Bill by Jeremiah Poff at Washington Examiner. The new law makes Arkansas the third state this year to enact a universal school choice program after Iowa and Utah enacted similar bills earlier this year. The three states join Arizona and West Virginia as the only states to date that have enacted universal school choice. Read

Florida’s Education Choice Opportunity by Jason Bedrick at Washington Examiner. House Bill 1... would expand eligibility for the state’s groundbreaking education savings account policy to all K-12 students. Currently, only students with special needs are eligible. With an education savings account, or ESA, families have the freedom and flexibility to customize their child’s education. Families may use ESA funds to pay for private school tuition, tutoring, textbooks, homeschool curriculum, online learning, special needs therapy, and more. Florida was the second state, after Arizona, to enact an ESA policy. Read

2023 Is Already a Record Year for School Choice by Corey DeAngelis at Wall Street Journal. On Wednesday, 33 Nebraska senators—precisely the number needed for cloture—voted to allow the Opportunity Scholarships Act to move forward, advancing a school-choice bill for the first time in the state’s history.... The Opportunity Scholarships Act would establish a tax credit to encourage donations for private-school scholarships up to about $7,000 a year to roughly 5,000 K-12 students in the state. Read

Throwback Thursday

Apostolic Constitution of the Supreme Pontiff John Paul II on Catholic Universities given in Rome at Saint Peter's Basilica on August 15, 1990. The mission that the Church, with great hope, entrusts to Catholic Universities holds a cultural and religious meaning of vital importance because it concerns the very future of humanity. The renewal requested of Catholic Universities will make them better able to respond to the task of bringing the message of Christ to man, to society, to the various cultures: "Every human reality, both individual and social has been liberated by Christ: persons, as well as the activities of men and women, of which culture is the highest and incarnate expression. The salvific action of the Church on cultures is achieved, first of all, by means of persons, families and educators..." Read