Non-Catholics choose Catholic schools for academics, moral guidance

Published: 2008-01-30

ATLANTA (CNS) -- Recommendations from other parents and a long-standing reputation as effective educators who also address a student's moral development are key reasons why non-Catholic parents choose Catholic schools for their children. Jamal Burt, who is Christian but not Catholic, is both a teacher and the parent of a student at St. Peter Claver School in Decatur. His son, Isaiah, is a kindergartner. "I'm a product of Catholic schools from first to eighth grade," said Burt, who grew up in New Jersey. "My education received a jump-start (in a Catholic elementary school), and when I went to a public high school I saw that I had an advantage." He described the experience of attending a Catholic school as intense and exciting. "We're able to talk about faith, to talk about God specifically. To me, it's an important part of socializing a person," he said in an interview with The Georgia Bulletin, newspaper of the Atlanta Archdiocese. The Washington-based National Catholic Educational Association -- which marked Catholic Schools Week Jan. 27-Feb. 2 -- reports that non-Catholic student enrollment in the nation's Catholic schools stood at 14 percent for the 2006-07 school year.

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