USCCB’s education director reflects on Catholic school landscape as school year begins

(OSV News) — With a new school year on the horizon, OSV News asked John DeJak, director of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat of Catholic Education, to provide an overview of Catholic education in America. As a former teacher and administrator who has served in both diocesan and independent schools since the late 1990s, DeJak is uniquely positioned to assess the state of the nation’s approximately 5,800 Catholic schools, which educate nearly 1.7 million students. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

OSV News: Describe your role. How do you advise the bishops on Catholic education?

John DeJak: I am the primary staff to the bishops’ Committee on Catholic Education, and my jurisdiction is Catholic K-12 education across the United States, with an emphasis on institutional settings, (including) Catholic higher education, so all our Catholic colleges and universities, and then public policy regarding the same.

I have three other staff members and consultants who assist me, and I speak with Bishop David O’Connell several times a week. He’s the bishop of the Diocese of Trenton, the former president of The Catholic University of America, and the chairman of the (USCCB’s) Committee on Catholic Education. My job is to execute his priorities — and that of the other bishops on the committee — in line with the mission directive of the USCCB.

OSV News: What trends are new, and what trends continue in Catholic education?

DeJak: The committee of bishops has focused on several things that have carried on between different chairmen.

Prior to Bishop O’Connell, Bishop (Thomas) Daly (of Spokane) took a very keen interest in an evangelization effort to those who are religiously unaffiliated or disaffiliated from the Church, with a special focus on young adults and youth.

He said (that) looking at the data, many of our young people are leaving the Church at age 13 or 14. They see confirmation as “graduation” from Church, and they don’t darken the door again. We have to examine that: What are we doing right, and what are we missing?

That’s one area — a re-examination of Catholic pedagogy and practice in light of what the Church has always done — that’s been a project of the committee for a number of years now.

Another is the emphasis and inclusion of students with disabilities in our Catholic schools. There’s been a lot of development in the past 10 years, with the support and encouragement of the bishops, as to how we serve all of our Catholic people. It’s a mandate.

Another trend that has emerged since COVID — but has also been exacerbated by cell phones and rampant and ubiquitous technology — is the (student) mental health issue. Obviously, family breakdown is a contributing factor, but there’s spikes of depression and suicidal ideation as a result of these new technologies and social media, kind of this culture of unreality.

OSV News: It appears there’s an increase of independent Catholic schools operating outside the oversight of dioceses — is this a blessing or a challenge?

DeJak: The Church has always maintained parents can choose the environment and the school best suited for their circumstances and their child’s circumstances. ?

Some choose to homeschool. Some choose public school. Some choose independent schools. The obligation is there, however, for Catholic parents to educate their children in the faith.

This renewal of Catholic education — of which some independent schools are part — is really a recovery of a coherent view of reality, born from the heart of the Church. It helps students understand where they come from, where they’re going, why they’re here. And this is what Catholic education has always done.

I think it’s acted as a leavening effect for many of our diocesan schools, and the religious order schools as well, so it’s been generally positive.

OSV News: It also seems Catholic education might be in a period of experimentation, with the rise of classical schools, micro-schools and hybrid homeschooling. What do these emerging models tell us about innovation?

DeJak: What these new schools are doing is recognizing the historical reality that, unfortunately, secularizing influences — the progressivist education that began around the same time our bishops were starting the parochial school system — kind of won the day in education departments at universities and the places where many teachers were trained. There are assumptions there at variance with a coherent Catholic understanding of the world.

One can’t help that one was never introduced to certain things or had a particular training, but it is our duty to figure it out and try to right the ship. I think parents are recognizing the impact of those secular influences, and I think it’s proven out when we see the rates of disaffiliation.

OSV News: So you see this experimentation as innovative, but also a recovery.

DeJak: Yes, exactly. God raises up saints for the eras in which they are needed. I think something similar is going on here in terms of a reappreciation of traditional pedagogies. You want to excite the sacramental imagination of these kids, so when they look at the world, they know that’s not all there is. There’s something deeper and supernatural behind that. God is animating this. ?

OSV News: How does homeschooling in general fit into the Catholic education landscape?

DeJak: People homeschool for a variety of reasons — some economic, some philosophical. It’s very much part of the Catholic education landscape and the rightful exercise of parents to make a choice in that regard, given their circumstances. The Church has always indicated the need for schools because they know parents can’t do it all, but the Church certainly doesn’t stand in the way of parents choosing to educate their own children at home.

OSV News: School choice continues to be a much-discussed policy option. How does it play into the current landscape and the future of Catholic schools?

DeJak: School choice is a huge issue for the bishops — in particular, the federal scholarship tax credit, also known as the Education Freedom Tax Credit, which was part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed last year. This is an opportunity for taxpayers to donate money in the amount of $1,700 to a scholarship-granting organization and have it considered a tax credit.

It has a great potential if the Church capitalizes on this opportunity, because it allows parents and families to apply for scholarships. It’s all private, not federal, money, and it allows them to choose the school of their choice, which can be a Catholic school.

This really does put the power back into the parents’ hands as original and primary educators. It would allow more families to access Catholic schools, and could be transformative if people take advantage of it — if the communications are robust and people know it exists.

And that’s an opportunity, in the final analysis, to save more souls.

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