Superman Unnecessary At Inner-City Parochial Schools But Santa Claus Is

The filmmaker who sold Al Gore's "Inconvenient Truth" and global warming to the public is now aiming his documentary expertise against the public school system.

"Waiting For Superman" is Davis Guggenheim's much ballyhooed film about the sorry state of our public schools and places much of the blame on the teachers unions. The buzz in many circles is that this is a film that will change the world much as "Inconvenient Truth" did.

Does it make a difference that that particular film was filled with bogus facts and simpering imagery? Not really as it won Mr. Gore a Noble Prize, an Oscar, and a Grammy. Mr. Guggenheim is obviously a very talented director who admits that he is a "lefty" so patrons should be wary of being manipulated by dramatic scenes that tug at the heartstrings but might depress deep thinking on a very complicated issue.

One can't deny that this time Mr. Guggenheim has struck at an issue that needs reform as our public school system devours funding with little to show for it, When my children were old enough to go to school, I had no intention of ever sending them to public schools as I am a graduate and a firm proponent of the parochial school system. I was fortunate enough to attend an elementary school in Spanish Harlem before Vatican II and the Ecumenical movement depleted religious vocations, so I was taught by the best teachers in the country: Irish nuns.

Several years ago, I wrote a column for The New York Sun praising the education I received at a parochial school in Spanish Harlem. At that time the school was tuition free and the girls were taught by the Sisters of Mercy and the boys by the Irish Christian Brothers. Most of the students in my class were, like I was, from dysfunctional families and very poor. Eighty percent were Hispanic yet we all spoke perfect English by the time we graduated from eighth grade. The nuns demanded much from us in spite of our personal situations and there were no efforts to boost our self-esteem. Consequently, we all received a great education.

I compared the success of the parochial school standards with the failures of the NYC public school system, which operated at that time with a $12 billion budget. In response to the column, I received a letter from Edward Cardinal Egan with an invitation to lunch. He also scrolled a handwritten note that read, "Imagine what we could do with $12 billion."

For the school year 2009-10, the Department of Education's total budget is $21.9 billion and Johnny still can't read. The city is broke and yet still caves into the teachers union demands. Cuts are made to programs that rile the public but the administrative cuts are non-existent. City Council members react to the public furor and pump more money into a dismal system.

Meanwhile, the inner-city parochial schools have been in dire straits since the economy collapsed in 2008. Scholarship funding has been severely curtailed and in some cases ceased altogether. Now here's a school system that works and could be saved if the private sector stepped in. While many parents think that vouchers are the answer, they only work on two conditions: If the government does not interfere with the religious curriculum and if the parents commit themselves to cooperating with the schools working so hard on their children's behalf.

When we moved to Staten Island, we were in a school district with the lowest reading scores. Immaculate Conception School is an inner-city parochial school where the majority of students come from low-income minority families. My six children went there and now my grandchildren attend there as well. Two of them were in Pre-K last year and learned the Pledge of Allegiance in sign language. The reading scores for all are above average.

On a recent Oprah Winfrey television program, her guests were New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Newark Mayor Cory Booker and Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg. They spoke of their quest to reform the school system in Newark and Mr. Zuckerberg pledged $100 million to this mission.

The "Superman" movie follows five families who anxiously wait to see if their child will get into a charter school. I see that Guggenheim the filmmaker is using the same technique to generate an emotional response as he did in "An Inconvenient Truth" only instead of dying polar bears, it's distraught mothers. Who isn't moved by a mother's cry that the choice for her son is either a good charter school or jail? Frankly, I found this statement slightly surreal because good parents couldn't imagine such a choice unless they were totally dependent on the government for their child's future.

One of the most stirring true Horatio Alger stories is that of Benjamin Carson, who is the director of pediatric neurosurgery at the famed John Hopkins Medical Center. He was raised by a single parent with a third-grade education who worked three jobs to support her family. Her son Ben was failing in school and was thought to have a learning disability. Did she wait for a charter school to become available? No. Mrs. Carson was determined to turn her sons' lives around. She limited their television viewing and only let them outside when they completed their homework. She made them read two library books every week and they had to write reports on what they learned.

A few years ago at a dinner given by the Manhattan Institute, I sat next to a director of an upstate charter school and he told me a bit about how the school operated and how successful it was. I told him that it sounded a lot like how parochial schools operated: uniforms, strict discipline, involved parents, homework and basically zero tolerance for disruptions. He admitted that that was the exact formula he used for his school, minus religious instruction.

My neighbors are Albanian Muslims who sent their children to Immaculate Conception because they wanted their children to get a good education and they did. Forty percent of the students there are non-Catholic. Unfortunately, there are no billionaire philanthropists willing to accept the crosses in the classroom, but every so often a real Santa Claus turns up to sponsor a poor student.

Comedian Mo Rocca discovered The Inner-City Scholarship Fund (ICSF), which bankrolls 103 designated elementary and secondary inner-city schools. Nearly two-thirds of the students enrolled come from homes living near or below the federal poverty line. Despite that enormous hardship, 99% of their high school seniors graduate and 96% of those graduates pursue college or university studies.

In an interview with NBC News back in 2007, he said, "What really hooked me into the charity was a visit to one of the ICSF elementary schools, Saint Aloysius. The school's in Harlem and over three-quarters of the kids are living below the poverty line. And yet I had never seen kids so disciplined and so hard working.

"I was looking for a way to give and ICSF had a program called 'Be a Student's Friend.' And it was so tangible, and simple. For a gift of $2,200, you could take a child that would otherwise be in a public school and put that kid in a Catholic school for a year of elementary school. Or for $2,700, put a kid who would otherwise be in a public high school in a year of Catholic high school in the City. I thought, 'Wow, this is so doable!'"

Public schools have huge city budgets and billionaires like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg to fund their programs. What parochial schools should at least have are grateful alumni who want to help other children have the same opportunities for a good education as they had.

Alicia Colon resides in New York City and can be reached at aliciav.colon@gmail.com and at www.aliciacolon.com