Outside Nonprofit to Manage Six N.Y. Catholic Schools

The Archdiocese of New York is turning over operations at six struggling elementary schools to a nonprofit education group, the first time an independent entity has been brought in to run city parochial schools, writes the New York Daily News.

Starting this fall, the Partnership for Inner-City Education will manage finances and oversee curricula at the schools in Harlem and the Bronx. The organization has a long record of working with New York Catholic schools. The archdiocese will continue to own the school buildings and will control religious education.

The diocese has closed dozens of schools since 2000 amid plunging enrollment and a major reorganization. “We need to try new administrative models to address the challenges faced by Catholic education today and to ensure that our schools thrive and stay strong for future generations,” Archbishop Timothy Dolan said in a statement.

Similarly, in the past year, the Philadelphia Archdiocese turned over control of more than 30 of its elementary and high schools to private nonprofit groups.