From the WSJ Opinion Archives
DE GUSTIBUS
Strike Up the Band
Children at a Catholic school make music, and progress.
Having immersed myself in Latin culture for more years than I care to admit, I thought I had heard every rendition of Tito Puente's "Oye Como Va" that could impress me. That was until the St. Joseph's elementary school band from Bathgate Avenue in the Bronx delivered its own interpretation at its annual spring benefit earlier this month.
Every number that the students performed at the concert was solid. But it was the grand finale featuring the mambo great's classic that made me want to get up and dance. And I wasn't alone. By the time the band wrapped it up, the whole place was swaying. Carlos Santana, eat your heart out, I thought, as the audience erupted in applause. After the performance the students mingled with the crowd in their neat school uniforms, every one of them a portrait of grace and good manners.
The next day, at my desk, I was still tapping the cha-cha-cha with a pencil and found myself contemplating the sheer joy that had filled that school hall. It dawned on me that what had made my heart sing wasn't the trumpets or the flutes. It was the sound of 210 children, from one of the roughest neighborhoods in New York, beating the odds.
St. Joseph's is a run-of-the-mill four-story structure of yellow brick. Like so many buildings in its neighborhood, it has heavy wire mesh covering the windows at street level. But what's on the inside of that ordinary schoolhouse makes it special. For the 491 Hispanic, African-American and West Indian students who attend kindergarten through eighth grade, it is a place of safety, structure and promise in a dangerous and disorderly world. The school band, which is mandatory for all students from fifth to eighth grade, reflects the discipline and sense of accomplishment that are synonymous with St. Joseph's student body.
Eighty percent of the children at the school are from single-parent homes or live with their grandparents; 85% live in Section 8 housing; and for 60% of them, English is not their first language. Most come from New York's notorious South Bronx, where the city's schools seem to devour the innocent. "The public schools in this area aren't good," the mother of a third-grader on scholarship was quoted as saying in St. Joseph's December newsletter. "The kids there grow up too fast. I wanted my son to go to a Catholic school." No wonder. Only 58% of New York's public school students graduate in four years, but the number is 95% for St. Joseph's students.
High graduation rates are a constant at most Catholic schools, but St. Joseph's is unique even within the parochial system: It is the only area Catholic school that has an "open enrollment policy," accepting "any child regardless of faith, academic ability or emotional stability." This is not, as some advocates of the government-run public system would have you believe, a school that is skimming the cream of the crop.
New York's Catholic schools have always been a beacon of hope for the poor, but it's been a long time since they were staffed by nuns, who taught as part of their religious vocation. Today the schools must rely on lay teachers who understandably expect both salaries and benefits. About 19% of students receive financial aid, and the full tuition of $2,750 per student still falls short of the $3,868 annual cost to give one child a basic education. Add to this any necessary capital improvements, as well as remedial assistance, art, music, physical education and the after-school enrichment programs, and the bills begin to mount.
So how is it that St. Joseph's is flourishing and even expanding? The answer, in a large part, lies with the generosity of private donors who have been tapped through an "adopt a school" program of the archdiocese. "Adoption" here means that individuals commit to a school they begin to see as their own. Each adopted school also has its own advisory board, whose members become personally involved with the students, visiting classes and sponsoring and chaperoning excursions.
Thirty-six New York archdiocese elementary schools have been adopted, and the director of the Patron's Program says that the bulk of the financial support comes from senior-level Wall Street executives. High-net-worth individuals not only give generously but also open their Rolodexes and talk to friends who can help the school with either professional time or money. One school was adopted by 37 floor traders from Bear Stearns who pooled their charitable giving.
St. Joseph's has been blessed by a single wealthy benefactor--an anonymous hedge fund manager. This white knight has given nearly $400,000 over the past three years to help fund the renovation of the building's fourth floor that allowed the school to add 20 new students last year.
"Adopt a school" participants gave $8.8 million in 2006 and provided countless hours of pro-bono work. That's a lot of charity, but spend one evening with the St. Joseph's school band and it's pretty clear why New Yorkers do it. In a town that often seems all about money, few investments yield such a high rate of return.
Ms. O'Grady is The Wall Street Journal's Americas columnist.
