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WEEK IN RELIGION 5/9/80

U.S. RELIGIOUS SCHOOLS ON THE RISE

Christian and Jewish children, above, receive religious and moral training

as part of their regular curriculum, while attending church-sponsored

private schools. Such institutions have been on the increase -- particularly

among Protestants -- since the Supreme Court decision of 1947 mandated

neutrality in the public sector and later laws were enacted banning prayer,

devotions and Bible reading. The number of so-called "Christian schools"

has jumped more than 600% since the 1960's.

Among Jews, perhaps the most stunning reversal occurred in 1979, when the

Rabbinical Assembly of Conservative Judaism abandoned its long-standing

opposition to government aid for private schools and endorsed Federal tuition

tax credits for Jewish day school education, as a step that was vital to

"Jewish survival." The entry of the conservative movement into private

education is partly a result of a Board of Jewish Education campaign in 1973,

to enroll every Jewish child in some form of Jewish studies. Dr. Alvin

Schiff, an executive of the board, said then, "At a time when assimilation

threatens our existence, every Jewish parent who turns away from Jewish

education for his children is unknowingly helping to sign a death sentence

for American Jewry." Today, there are 500 Jewish day schools -- mostly

Orthodox -- with upwards of 93,000 pupils in 35 states and Canada.

The Roman Catholic school system, built to preserve the faith of European

immigrants entering a predominantly Protestant country, is by far the

largest parochial system -- with 9,000 schools and three million students.

Though some religious schools may have been rightly accused of providing a

convenient shelter for whites during the 1960s civil rights era, minority

enrollment is now up in many religious schools. Al Senfke, of the Board

of Parish Education of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod -- where non-white

enrollment is said to be 14% -- is enthusiastic about the situation. He

says, "It's really quite a mixture. So it's not as some people think,

racist or elitist." In the south and other areas, private schools that

may have been established as all-white academies, have begun to integrate --

undoubtedly with some incentive from an Internal Revenue Service regulation

which ties tax-exempt status to open racial policies.

Problems plaguing the nation's public schools, including lax discipline and

poor academic standards have led many non-Catholic students to seek a better

educational opportunity in Catholic schools. Church educators have found

that nine percent of this group are blacks who "want to go to a good

college and make something of themselves."

The likelihood that much of the private school growth results from the

perceived slackness in intellectual and disciplinary rigor in the public

sector, has been expressed by many authorities who agree with Christian

educator D. Bruce Lockerbie, that "career tracking" and "socialization"

have replaced classical learning and character building. Mr. Lockerbie,

in his recent book, "Who Educates Your Child," (Doubleday-Galilee) may be

speaking for many church-school advocates as he writes that "the true test

of schooling isn't how brilliantly intellectual its graduates may be, but

what kind of men and women a school produces. As a parent, I'm far more

interested in my children's moral responsibility than in their grade-point

average."

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