U.S. Catholic carried an article that focuses on an important topic for anyone interested in the survival of Catholic schools: why more Latinos don't attend Catholic schools. It quotes Father Joe Corpora, co-chairman of the University of Notre Dame's Task Force on the Participation of Latinos in Catholic Schools:

... the task force has discovered that its more than financial constraints keeping most Hispanic families away from Catholic schools, Corpora says. Two other factors are at play: First, in most Latin American countries there is no such thing as a parish school, so the entire concept is new to many Latino immigrants ...

Also, Catholic schools in the United States have been slow to realize the differences between Latino immigrants and the descendants of Western European immigrants who founded the schools ...

Our schools for years and years served immigrants. When the immigrants stopped looking like immigrants, weve never re-invented our schools to serve todays immigrants, Corpora says. The church has not gotten smart enough to adapt to the local clientele.

American Grace, the recent book by Robert Putnam and David Campbell, has some data that underline how urgent it is for the schools to connect with young Latino Catholics. It notes that nearly 7 in 10 young Catholics who attend church regularly are Latinos (because Latinos in the 18-34 bracket are more likely to attend church than Anglo Catholics). It also notes that Latinos are far more likely to remain in the church (78 percent retention rate to 57 percent for Anglo Catholics). In the 18 to 34 age group, 58 percent of Catholics are Latinos.What it boils down to is that any solution to securing the future of Catholic schools must include a way to connect better with Latino Catholics. Catholic colleges, which have a considerable stake in this, should do all they can to assist.