Catholic Schools

The mission of Catholic schools is to teach students the Catholic faith with its beliefs and practices, to provide students with an outstanding academic education, and to socialize them for adulthood by preparing them to be responsible citizens with a concern for social justice. Catholic schools are countercultural in their emphasis on the sacred, while reflecting aspects of the secular culture of the society in which they are embedded. Catholic schools are found in virtually every country. In 2011, there were about 136,000 Catholic schools worldwide enrolling almost 50 million students. In the United States, Catholic schools enroll about 6 percent of the school-age population. Other nonpublic schools comprise about 4 percent of the population, with the remaining 90 percent attending public schools or being ...