Cristo Rey on 60 Minutes Wednesday Night -- Bridging the gap between public and private schools (Urban Schools)

Sixty Minutes 2 will apparently profile Chicago's Cristo Rey school on its Wednesday night broadcast, according to today's edition of EducationNews.org: Cristo Rey, the "School That Works".

While Sixty Minutes probably won't address it, Cristo Rey is more than just a feel-good story about students succeeding in a tough neighborhood. Sure, Cristo Rey features an innovative and somewhat controversial work-study format that allows the school to charge less than half of a typical parochial school. The students, many of them first-generation Spanish speakers, appear to be thriving. And the Chicago school is now part of a small but growing network of Cristo Rey model schools that have sprouted up in urban areas around the country. (In January, 2003, my article in City Limits magazine chronicled the effort to start a Cristo Rey school in New York City: The School That Works.)

What makes the Cristo Rey model interesting is how, by virtue of its design and low tuition, it bridges some of the gap between public and private schooling. Last year, the Gates Foundation announced a $19 million grant to build the network of Cristo Rey schools -- by all accounts the only major education philanthropy to fund a parochial school initiative in the nation. And, at just over $2,000, a Cristo Rey tuition is not only within reach for more parents, it's also not that far from the amount of federal funds spent on children under NCLB. To see how this might play out, see my commentary from last year in the Gadfly: A new investment in school choice?