Bennett Calls on Catholics to Help Dropouts

Education Secretary William J. Bennett called on Catholic schools Thursday to enroll the most troubled public school students and ask state or local governments to help pay for teaching them.

His proposal, made in an address to the National Catholic Education Assn.’s annual convention here, was greeted warmly by some Catholic educators but was challenged by several leading public education groups.

Bennett dubbed his plan “Project Voluntas,” Latin for good will.

Parochial schools already have done an exemplary job teaching minority students, who make up 22% of their 2.5-million total enrollment, he told the gathering. But he said Catholic educators have not been effective in telling outsiders how much better they have done with difficult students compared to many public schools.

‘Challenge Is Simple’

“The challenge is simple,” said Bennett, himself a parochial school product. “Show educators around this country what works.

“Seek out the poor, the disadvantaged, the disruptive, the dropout, and take them in, educate them and then ask society for fair recompense for your efforts,” Bennett said.

He said Catholic schools should ask state or local governments for “half the price, or two-thirds of the price, or something like that,” of what it would have cost to teach such students in public schools.

Bennett’s idea of providing Catholic schools with public funds for teaching “the so-called worst 5, or 10%,” of students was applauded by Catholic educators.

“I think there’s a good deal of possibility for it,” said Father John Pollard, director of education for the Archdiocese of Chicago, which enrolls 180,000 kindergarten through 12th-grade students.

“We do not subscribe to the absolute separation of church and state that others who oppose us do. The so-called wall of separation is not in the (U.S.) Constitution,” Pollard said.

But the proposal was condemned by Gary Marx, associate executive director of the American Assn. of School Administrators.