Four Blue Ribbon Honors

It is important to recognize something good when it happens..and so, let's take a moment to congratulate four of our Catholic elementary schools for receiving the US Dept. of Education's Blue Ribbon Schools Award for academic achievement.

These were four out of 49 schools chosen nationwide.

They are:

• St. Jane de Chantal School in Bethesda;


• St. Bartholomew School in Bethesda;


• Mary of Nazareth School in Darnestown; and


• St. Mary School in Rockville.

Congratulations and for the full story go here.

Need a Job? The Archdiocese has one for you...

As many of you know, for the last few years, I have been raising the alarm about the poor manner in which Catholic education has been handled in this Archdiocese.

One of my issues I have had is that the marketing of Catholic education is really non-existant. For years, I have complained that our Catholic cemeteries had more marketing than our Catholic schools. You can hear regular ads on WMAL (630AM) usually with Msgr. Enzler or someone who has loved one's buried at a Catholic cemetery.

Now, there is nothing wrong with this type of advertisement but there was nothing for Catholic schools except the feeble attempt to pay for a couple of ads on Metro buses earlier this year.

Although they will not admit it, marketing has been left up the to local schools. Local schools do the best they can, relying on parents who may have some marketing experience to assist.

Why?

As I see it, it is because these are parish schools and therefore, the responsibility rests with them, even though the Archdiocese tells them what to teach, how much to pay teachers, etc.

Well, after years of being left on their own, a large number of Catholic schools closing and enrollment dropping like Obama's approval ratings, combined with the new education policies, the Archdiocese has finally announced a new position:

DIRECTOR OF SCHOOL MARKETING AND ADVANCEMENT

(BTW, it is interesting to note that the position of Coordinator of Parish Social Ministry has a larger advertisement than the School marketing position in the Catholic Standard.)

The Washington Post - Wrong Again

This Sunday's Washington comPost, has an article on the change in Congress and what does it hold for DC residents.

The writer stated:

But the DC vouchers were quickly rescinded by the Obama administration because of uncertainty over funding from Congress.

Total BS.

Look, the Democratic congress, on the issues of vouchers, had sold themselves like common prostitutes, to the National Education Assn. They did not want any taxpayer funding to go to private schools, but more importantly, there is an anti-Catholic bias in the Democratic Party.

The vouchers program was ended, so to speak, because of the NEA and anti-Catholic bigotry.

Although the Archdiocese of Washington fought hard, and got this Administration to at least keep its commitment to those who had started the program, everyone now has to suffer -- students, parents and taxpayers.

Hopefully, things will change.

USCCB, the Papal Blog and Catholic Education

On the USCCB Papal Blog, a blog posting was made regarding Catholic Education. In particular, there was a paragraph on the number of "Catholic" colleges and universities.

Now, being a bit of a wise guy/gal, I left the following comment on the blog:

How many of those who are listed as Catholic colleges and universities are really Catholic? Georgetown and Trinity in the Washington DC area both have homosexual organizations and regularly go against Catholic teaching, such as Trinity's invitation to Nancy Pelosi.

Since it is the USCCB's blog, they decided that it wasn't worth posting.

Now, they have that right -- it is after all their blog -- but I wonder how many other people really believe everything they are saying about Catholic education in the US.

And for those of you who are interested, I made certain to get a screen shot of my posting.




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

Quote of the Month:

"I've got two daughters — 9 years old and 6 years old, I am going to teach them first of all about values and morals. But if they make a mistake, I don't want them punished with a baby. So it doesn't make sense to not give them information." Barack Obama