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Education | Religious schools that can't afford to stay open face the prospect of losing their soul | Alisa Harris

James Allen Walker for WORLD

NEW YORK—St. Mary Star of the Sea School has resided in the outer limits of an outer New York borough for 140 years. The brick building's inner walls have been repainted so many times that the principal, Angela Brucia, tells students they look like a wrinkled face. Tuition goes up about $200 each year (in a neighborhood where the median income is $33,000), and enrollment goes down—from 360 students when Brucia started 18 years ago to 240 students today.

Because of its financial challenges, the school in Queens may be a good candidate for charter school conversion—a proposal that both New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Roman Catholic leaders are working on, in an attempt to salvage a few of the 14 New York City Catholic schools that face closure next year.

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March 28, 2009, Vol. 24, No. 6

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