The Catholic Education Paradox: Elitism, exclusion and social mobility

When we look at the history of Catholic education in Australia, indeed the world, its establishment emerged from a strong belief in education as a powerful way of evangelising and sowing the seeds of faith. Indeed, Catholic schools emerged in social contexts of disadvantage and hardship. Catholics were a persecuted group, and Catholic schools offered the faithful places of safe familiarity. 

Looking ahead to the contemporary Catholic school, much has changed. No longer are Catholics a persecuted minority in this country. Indeed, they face a greater threat of of being sounded out by an increasingly secularised world. Catholic schools enrol almost as many non-Catholics as Catholics, and are established as a high performing system of schools. So much so, that many Catholic schools have grown to be premier educational institutions. 

The commodification of education has, to some extent, necessitated a certain degree of pragmatism in Catholic education. Catholic schools, in order to remain viable, have to be responsive to the prevailing policy and funding conditions. However, my contention is that many Catholic schools have strayed so far from their founding traditions, they are only recognisable by the crucifixes. 

The authors of The Catholic School on the Threshold of the Third Millennium presciently stated that the contemporary Catholic school faces the challenge of avoiding the entrapment of rising secularism which reduces education to its "purely technical and practical aspects." Perhaps these "practical aspects" might refer to the ways in which many Catholic schools 'chase the dollar' in order to meet certain expectations from the elite class. The elite class desire social mobility or maintenance for their children, and many so-called elite Catholic schools provide parents with educational environments with high social capital, and with every fee paying enrolment these schools preserve the most important aspects of their reputation which serve to reinforce their public standing, both educationally and financially. The research indicates that high-SES is one among a number of strong predictors of academic performance, and therefore, a number of Catholic schools undertake a process of social class creaming in order to enrol the best students.

I provide a sample of Catholic schools, their fees and founding charism below:

School 1 (Metropolitan) - Christian Brothers 

• Fees per annum: $13152

School 2 (Metropolitan) - Society of the Sacred Heart

• Fees per annum: $15460

School 3 (Regional) - Missionaries of the Sacred Heart 

• Fees per annum: $11020

School 4 (Metropolitan) - Jesuit

• Fees per annum (Year 7 student): $22900

... and the list could go on. While I do not suggest that these schools do not achieve great things for their students while neglecting students' faith formation, I do assert that these fees not only exclude the very students for whom Catholic schools were established, but defy their founding charism.

At a recent gathering of Queensland Catholic school Principals, Dr Wayne Tinsey (Executive Director, Edmund Rice Education Australia) presented those present with some very provocative questions, which he fearlessly posed to even his own colleagues in the system of schools and colleges which he leads:

1. Is a true 'option for the poor' our priority and mission and do our cultures and practices reflect this priority?
2. Do certain traditions or parental expectations of us conflict with our embrace of a deeper 'option for the poor'?
3. Do our fee structures and enrolment policies really encourage inclusion or are we focussed on priorities that exclude us as a possibility for those who are poor?

I am quite confident that Edmund Rice, Ignatius of Loyola, St Madaleine Sophie and Fr Jules Chevalier had no intention of establishing exclusive, elite Catholic schools. Again, any superficial analyses of these Orders' founding philosophies would conclude that there is some degree of dissonance with the schools founded in their names.

It is undeniable that elite Catholic schools offer students great opportunities, but questions remain around their authentic Catholicity and the extent to which their graduates absorb the socially depletive classism which appears to be the emergent ideological basis of these students' alma mater.