St. Joseph Regional School in Beltsville

The Catholic Standard has really been pushing the fact that the new education policies are really doing everything that the Archdiocese hoped -- an more. In the same vein as the "shovel ready projects."

If you look at this week's Catholic Standard (Nov. 11, 2010 Page 7), the article touts the new St. Joseph Regional School in Beltsville, as a reflection of faith and the shared effort of three parishes.

How wonderful and exciting it is that this school, now has an enrollment of 210, has seen an increase of 40 students compared with the year before. How beautiful it is that there are three parishes sharing the burden - St. Joseph, St. Hugh and St. Nicholas.

But things are not as they seem to be.

You see, what the Catholic Standard did not tell you was

• St. Joseph originally had an enrollment of 170.
• St. Hugh originally had an enrollment of 125.
• Combined, they should have an enrollment of almost 300.
• Now, they only have 210 -- a loss of 90 students.

I guess that is what they mean by new math. A 90 student loss is actually a gain.

I wonder if they contacted the parents of the 90 to determine why they did not come back. Could it be the distance? Could it be that people want local Catholic parish schools?

BTW, this article was "Special to the Standard." In other words, it was created by the Communications Office of the Archdiocese of Washington.

PS: Thank you to one of my readers' for your email on this matter.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

BOYCOTT THE CCHD COLLECTION THIS SUNDAY!