Topics: Catholic Stewardship Appeal results; Gov. Cuomo deconstructs talk radio; Public schools as public works; R.I.P. Robert K. Berres
Sunday, January 26, 2003
READING NOTEBOOK:
The philosopher Elizabeth Anscombe once told of how she taught a little girl that Christ is really present in the Sacrament. Most movingly the child asked Anscombe when she came back from the altar rail, "Is he in you now?" And when she replied "Yes," the little girl knelt down in front of her.
[Eternal Life, by Peter Mullen, The Salisbury Review, Winter 2002]
I had been experimenting elsewhere with a fill-in form for soliciting brief book reviews to be submitted by email. But it needed work so I'll just stash it here.
This morning's newspaper reports on the results of last year's
Catholic Stewardship Appeal.
The Milwaukee Catholic Archdiocese has announced that its Catholic Stewardship Appeal for 2002, which was nearly $900,000 behind the normal pace in September, exceeded the $7 million goal by $11,303. ...
In all, 56,365 people donated to the 2002 appeal, down from 70,360 in 2001. The 2001 appeal raised $6.8 million.
That's about 3% more money from 20% fewer donors. I'd be more encouraged if it was 3% less money from 20% more doners.
Every college has cheers. Here's one from the
University of Chicago Law School.
Wall Street, Law Review,
Contingent fees, all right!
To get an A from Levi,
We'll study all the night.
Rules of law and bar exams,
They can go to h---;
It's economic theory,
For which we're goin' to yell.
SO GO, GO, EFFICIENCY,
GILBERT'S ALL THE WAY.
Learned Hand and U of C
Are going to win this day.
GO, MAROONS!
Catholic radio is getting closer, physically at least, with Starboard Network's Lake Geneva station WZRK, 1550 AM.
Foreign Policy is again Measuring Globalization: Who’s Up, Who’s Down?
The New York Sun editorializes on The Catholic Example.
In 1962, New York educated a student population of about one million with about 40,000 teachers. Today, the city educates about 100,000 more students, but the number of teachers has doubled to about 80,000. Has the quality of education improved by a factor of two? ...
The cost to educate the students in New York’s Catholic schools averages $3,200 a pupil for Kindergarten through eighth grade and $5,800 a pupil for high schoolers, ... The public schools spend nearly double that, about $10,000 each in elementary and middle schools and more than $9,000 for each high-school student. ...
The Archdiocese of New York is able to administer to about 110,000 students with a total central administrative staff of 28. At that level, the city’s school system would have no more than a few hundred administrative staff. But New York has almost 9,000 administrators, secretaries, clerks, accountants, and other assorted bureaucrats. In total, the city’s school system employs more than 136,000 persons, a ratio of about one employee for every nine students.
Or to put it another way, it employs 56,000 people in addition to its 80,000 teachers. Urban public school systems exist to provide those jobs, not to educate students.
Find that hard to believe? If you've read Savage Inequalities, by Jonathan Kozol, re-read the concluding pages (36-39) of the Chapter 1, "Life on the Mississippi," on the East St. Louis schools. Mr. Kozol tries hard to evade this conclusion, but if the facts are as he gives them, the wretched condition of those schools results from the unwillingness of the local political leaders, and perhaps their constituents, to give the education of the children priority if it means cutting the padding out of the payroll.
I've posted a notice to you (and reminder to me) of how any email you send will be handled, effective the start of this year. Time permitting, I'll apply it retroactively and edit past posts accordingly.
Funeral mass at St. Roman.
Then to the cemetery. We had requested the military honors to which Dad was entitled as a veteran. An honor guard of two sailors met the hearse. After the priest's prayer and blessing, a Marine veterans group on the high ground to the east fired a salute of three shots, then their bugler played Taps. After Taps, the honor guard folded an American flag into a triangle, and one of them then stepped up to Dad's widow and said
On behalf of the President of the United States and the Chief of Naval Operations, I extend condolences to you. This flag is presented on behalf of a grateful nation and the United States Navy as a token of appreciation for your loved one's honorable and faithful service. God bless you and this family, and God bless the United States of America.
This morning's newspaper carried my father's death notice.
R.I.P.
Robert K. Berres
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