Yesterday, I noted some good news for Catholics in Ohio: an increase in the number of student converts welcomed at the Ohio State University Newman Center’s Easter Vigil Mass. So, in the same upbeat spirit, here’s some good news for Catholics outside of Ohio, and some good news for Ohio.
First, the Catholic good news: Florida has bucked a nationwide trend of declining enrollment for Catholic schools. Seven thousand such institutions have closed over the past 60 years. In the past ten years, overall attendance is down 14 percent nationwide, and more than 30 percent in New York and New Jersey. But in Florida, it’s up 9 percent.
Thank school choice. In an op-ed for the Hill, Lauren May and Ron Matus explain that much of the decline in enrollment nationwide derives from affordability. Florida has addressed this concern with recent legislation that makes every student eligible for a “choice scholarship.” As a result, now 400,000 students are receiving them. So, in one state, at least, the kind of Catholic schooling from which I benefited is growing in popularity. Similar school-choice policies in other states, including Ohio, may help reverse its recent unfortunate trend lines.
And speaking of Ohio: A Cincinnati-area teenager may have just broken a state fishing record. Fish stories are often exaggerated, but New Richmond’s Jaylynn Parker, 15, has ample attestation of the 101-pound blue catfish she caught in the Ohio River. WLWT reports that she understandably needed help from her father and a family friend hauling the creature out of the river. “Obviously, I needed help with the fish since I’m only 117 pounds myself, without Jeff and my dad this wouldn’t have been possible.”
Parker is currently awaiting state confirmation, but it is currently in the running for the largest-ever wild-caught blue catfish in Ohio. As a connoisseur of the strange, both in Ohio and elsewhere, I am delighted to behold evidence of fish of near-mythic stature in my own homeland.
America: a country of more Catholic schools and of giant fish. What’s not to love?