Interesting fact: Barack Obama spent more time as a student at a Catholic school in Indonesia than did John F. Kennedy at the Catholic school he attended as a child in Connecticut.

William McGurn explores Obama’s Catholic school connection in a Jan. 27 Wall Street Journal article called “Obama Should Acknowledge His Roots.”

Says McGurn, “At a time when America’s 6,165 Catholic elementary and 1,213 secondary schools are celebrating Catholic Schools Week, President Obama’s first-hand experience here opens the door to a provocative opportunity. In his inaugural address, the president rightly scored a U.S. school system that ‘fail[s] too many’ of our young people. How refreshing it would be if he followed up by giving voice to a corollary truth: For tens of thousands of inner-city families, the local parochial school is often the only lifeline of hope.”

McGurn says such an intervention by the president would be especially useful, given the difficulties Catholic schools are currently experiencing.

“Unfortunately, America’s Catholic schools are in the midst of a crisis that has its roots in the loss of the nuns, priests and brothers who once supplied these schools with low-cost teachers,” McGurn writes. “Catholic school enrollment today is less than half what it was at its peak of more than five million, back when JFK was president. Thus inner-city Catholic schools have almost the opposite problem of their public counterparts: Though doing a heroic job, they are closing their doors at an alarming rate.

“Now, Catholic schools are not for everyone, and they are not the answer for all that plagues our cities. But they are an answer — one answer that is real, less costly, and working for many families desperate for the opportunities these schools provide. With a little imagination, these schools could reach many more such children.”

While I have been assembling this blog entry, an unsolicited email from Columbia University has just landed in my inbox announcing this event in New York City:

“Teachers College, Columbia University is hosting ‘What Makes New York City Catholic Schools Worth Saving?’, a special event that will feature a reading by author Patrick McCloskey from his book ‘The Street Stops Here: A Year at a Catholic High School in East Harlem.’

“‘What Makes New York City Catholic Schools Worth Saving?’ will be held on Monday, February 2nd, from 4 to 5:30 pm at Milbank Chapel at Teachers College, 525 West 120th Street, between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue. It is sponsored by the College’s Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media, with support from Teachers College and the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University.”

The Daily Blog joins with The Wall Street Journal’s McGurn in hoping that during these difficult times for America’s Catholic schools, President Obama will draw public attention to the many benefits these schools continue to provide to the African-American community.