by Joshua Alan Hoxmeier,
University of Illinois Chicago
American Catholic education’s decline beginning in the mid-twentieth century is nothing new. Between 1970 and 2010 enrollment and the number of Catholic schools fell drastically. 3,477 elementary (37 percent) and 781 high schools (39 percent) closed. Throughout the country, elementary school enrollment plummeted by 55 percent (1.85 million) and high school enrollment by 39 percent (396,277).
This unfortunate story of decline did not play out the same everywhere, and the Diocese of Lincoln was one example. At first Lincoln’s Catholic school system followed this national narrative of decline quite closely. The diocese hit its historic heights of ten high schools and 2,156 students and thirty-six elementary schools with 6,942 students during the early to mid-1960s. But by the end of the 1970s this had fallen to just 1,610 students in six high schools and 3,563 students in twenty-four elementary schools. This initial decline demonstrated that, in the beginning, Lincoln was not unique and did not avoid the general trend of decline. This made what happened next even more remarkable.
Since 1980, Lincoln’s Catholic schools not only achieved notable stability but even reversed some of the downward trends that occurred during the late 1960s and 1970s. In 2010, the diocese still had six high schools and had grown to twenty-five elementary schools. Between 1980 and 2010 enrollment increased by 31 percent, or 1,669 students. For comparison, national enrollment fell by more than 1 million students, or 33 percent. Moreover, Lincoln achieved this success while having some of the lowest tuition rates in the country. Average tuition in 2021 for Catholic elementary schools was $4,841 and $11,239 for high schools. But in Lincoln, the average 2022-2023 elementary school tuition is $2,207 and average high school tuition is just $3,356. Lincoln’s high school tuition is oftentimes lower than other dioceses’ elementary schools. Much of this success was due to Bishop Glennon Patrick Flavin, the diocese’s seventh bishop, who came to Lincoln in 1967 intensely focused on Catholic education. Some of his efforts are fairly well known, such as the founding of the School Sisters of Christ the King in June 1979. Others are less so and two stand out in particular: priests in Catholic education and the sacrifices of lay teachers. These two methods helped keep costs and tuition down, thereby keeping Catholic education accessible and affordable.
Beginning in the late 1960s along with the decline in religious vocations, the number of teaching priests seriously declined. Lay teachers filled these positions which caused school staffing costs to skyrocket to previously unknown levels. The teaching services of priests were considered part of the larger responsibilities, duties, and sacrifices demanded by their vocation to the religious life. They did not teach in order to make a living. Lay teachers, however, naturally expected a full salary as teaching was their profession and means of supporting their families.
Lincoln initially followed this trend. In 1960, forty-nine priests taught in the diocese. A decade later that figure dropped to just seventeen. Additionally, the diocese’s four priest-principals in 1960 had vanished completely by 1980. But for Lincoln this decline of priests in Catholic schools did not continue into the 1980s as it did for the rest of the country. In 2010 the diocese had thirty-six priest-teachers, more than double what it had in 1970. And in 2020 there were sixty-four teaching priests. Moreover, in 2010 there were eight priest-principals, twice as many as there were in 1960. Additionally, beginning in the 1980s, priests served as superintendents for every school. Taking all three positions together, Lincoln had significantly more priests involved in Catholic education in 2010 than in 1960.
In a 2019 Southern Nebraska Register (SNR) article, Reagan Scott noted, “One of the things that makes the Lincoln Diocese unique is its practice of having priests teach most theology classes at the high school level.” Bishop Flavin, and his successor, Bishop Fabian Wendelin Bruskewitz, accomplished this feat by placing a strong emphasis on teaching during priestly formation and by making education one of the most common ministries for priests. During their formation, seminarians at St. Gregory the Great Seminary took education classes. And as Scott stated, “After their ordinations, it’s common for priests to find themselves assigned to teach.”
Having such a large number of priests in Catholic schools came with significant financial benefits. Based on the average 2022 salary for Nebraska Catholic school principals of roughly $60,000, a conservative estimate of a $50,000 savings for each of the eight priest-principals amounted to $400,000. The sixty-four priest-teachers resulted in savings over $1 million. And the priest-superintendents likely saved over $1 million as well. The financial advantage priests in Catholic schools brought to the Diocese of Lincoln was unmistakable. These savings reduced the average cost per student while still providing highly rated education. For example, in 2021 the average cost per student at Pius X High School was $6,590. This was roughly half of what it cost Lincoln’s public schools and approximately $9,000 less than the average Catholic high school.
While Lincoln school staffing by priests was significant, lay teachers still made up a large part of the diocese’s teaching staff. Flavin challenged many of these lay teachers to sacrifice for the sake of Catholic education. To this end the diocese established the Catholic Teacher Corps (CTC) in 1974. The CTC hoped to attract recent college graduates as well as mothers who had earned teaching degrees but had left education to raise a family. On January 11, 1974 Father Myron Pleskac stated that recent college graduates were, “often imbued with a desire to dedicate themselves to some noble cause, at least for a period of time.” The CTC provided them with an opportunity to, “make a substantial contribution to their parish.”
This opportunity was one of special service to the Church, to build up the diocese’s Catholic schools through “sacrifice and devotion.” And the CTC certainly required significant sacrifice: CTC teachers made a one-year commitment to teach the same workload as regular teachers but at a salary of just $3,000 compared to the average at the time of $8,903. Twenty people applied for the CTC in its first year alone suggesting that for many people the special service to the diocese’s schools offset the program’s sacrifices. In many ways the CTC proved to be ahead of its time. Decades after the CTC began, numerous scholars including Timothy Walch and Reverend Richard Jacobs suggested Catholic dioceses work more closely with local Catholic colleges to find qualified teachers. In 2000 Jacobs stated that through such collaboration, “some of these undergraduates may be inspired to sacrifice themselves to this ministry upon graduation, even if only for a short period of time.” Comparing Jacobs words to Father Pleskac’s clearly demonstrated that Lincoln was ahead of the game in this regard and the CTC was one way its Catholic schools bucked the national trend of ballooning costs. In positioning teaching as a service to the Church, many lay people were found willing to sacrifice for Catholic education. Similar to having priests in Catholic schools, the sacrifice of lay teachers also helped to lower costs and keep tuition down.
The trajectory of Lincoln’s Catholic school system between 1980 and 2010 bucked national trends of decline in a variety of areas. Enrollment increased. The diocese achieved a stable number of women religious and a growing number of priests in the classroom. And tuition rates remained some of the lowest in the entire country. These measures, along with numerous others such as the Diocesan Development Plan, demonstrated what was possible if bishops, priests, female religious, and the laity continued to place strong emphasis on Catholic education. The history of Catholic education in the Diocese of Lincoln showed what a concerted effort to support Catholic education could accomplish even during the decline of the late twentieth- and early twenty-first centuries.
Joshua A. Hoxmeier is a PhD candidate in the history department at the University of Illinois Chicago. He is from Lincoln and graduated from St. Joseph Elementary School and Pius X High School. His dissertation is on the Diocese of Lincoln between 1960 and 2012 explaining how the diocese bucked national trends of decline in the American Catholic Church since the mid-20thcentury. The full version of this article will be published in the U.S. Catholic Historian upcoming Winter 2023 issue (Vol. 41, no. 1).
