For many readers, a Catholic education is a tradition that they grew up with and may be trying to give their own children. Others don’t look back on their Catholic school years so fondly and think that the religious education system should be allowed to fail. So the news that the Archdiocese of New York was going to be setting up 10 Catholic high schools to be run, mostly, independently by boards of directors was greeted with interest and speculation.

Some people think that the ultimate success or failure of the schools will depend on the boards that will be running the schools and how much the archdiocese removes itself from the process. A few people think this could be a real boost for the schools, citing the success of private Catholic schools like Iona and Ursuline. Others say this is just another example of the Church cutting its losses and trying to shirk its responsibility to bargain with the lay teachers union.

Read reporter Gary Stern’s story here and then tell us what you think.

Here are a few comments from the forums:

It’s a better choice than closing the schools, like the archdiocese has done with a number of elementary schools. Many parents want an alternative to just sending their children to a public school.

This could be good news or bad news. I’m going with bad for the moment. It depends on how much financial support the archdiocese is giving the schools right now. It depends on if our government will continue to burden us with more taxes and less and less relief.

Catholic education has always been overrated.The real purpose is tribal – promote fear, obedience and non-thinking. … The hitting is now gone but the tribalism still exists. It is still as damaging and will continue to shrink the church – deservedly so!