Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard praises Catholic schools and school choice at monthly business exchange meeting

Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard endorses the importance of Catholic education for the future of the city during a speech to members of the Catholic Business Exchange on March 16 at the Northside Knights of Columbus Hall in Indianapolis. (Photo by Mary Ann Garber) Click for a larger version.

By Mary Ann Garber

Catholic education got an enthusiastic endorsement from Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard during his early morning address to Catholic Business Exchange members on March 16 at the Northside Knights of Columbus Hall in Indianapolis.

“The Catholic education model in our city is so important,” Ballard told the business professionals and Bishop Christopher J. Coyne, apostolic administrator, who celebrated a Mass before the organization’s monthly breakfast and program.

“The Catholic schools are a good model for what other schools should be doing because you have high expectations,” the mayor emphasized. “It does have a dramatic impact. … I know times are tough. I know budgets are tough. But if you can expand the influence of the Catholic schools throughout the city, we will be better off. There’s no question about it. Catholic schools do a tremendous job in our city.”

There are a number of great schools in Indianapolis, he said, mentioning other private and charter schools that are filling the needs in “education desert” areas of the city.

“But the Catholic model by itself is very, very strong,” Ballard said. “I’m hoping that people look at it and will continue to look at it as a way to help us propel education forward in this city.”

Charter schools have been “a tremendous success,” he said. “I’m a big believer in competition and choice.”

School vouchers are “an important tool” to help students from low-income families, he said, by giving their parents a choice about where their children receive an education.

“One great example of Catholic education is [Cardinal] Ritter [Jr./Sr. High School],” Ballard said. “African-American boys who go to Ritter go on to college at an astounding rate compared to other schools in the city.”

St. Philip Neri School on the near east side of the city also does an exceptional job, he said, of providing a quality education to Hispanic children who also are learning English as a second language.

“We must continue to have strong expectations out of the Catholic schools,” Ballard said. “… I’m here to tell you that without my Catholic education and without the military—that combination—I would not be standing before you today.

“… I urge you to continue to expand the influence of Catholic education in the city, and to advocate for choice and competition in education in Marion County,” he said. “I would appreciate it if you would do that because I think it’s important for the future of the City of Indianapolis.”

The mayor began his talk by discussing his childhood as “a little Catholic kid on the east side of Indianapolis” who attended the former St. Francis de Sales School, the former St. Andrew the Apostle School and Cathedral High School when it was an all-boys school operated by the Holy Cross Brothers at 1400 N. Meridian St.

“I tell people all the time that my whole world until I was about 12 years old was two blocks by four blocks,” he said. “Life really is a journey. … You just don’t know where you’re going to wind up so use your life experiences to get you where you’re going.”

After earning a bachelor’s degree in economics at Indiana University, he enlisted in the Marine Corps and served the United States in a number of countries throughout the world for 23 years.

He was awarded the Legion of Merit and other medals for distinguished service before retiring as a lieutenant colonel in 2001 then moving back to his hometown with his wife, Winnie, and their children, Greg Jr. and Erica.

On Nov. 6, 2007, as a Republican, he was elected the 48th mayor of Indianapolis then last November was re-elected for a second four-year term.

Ballard said he is very proud of his wife, Winnie, who promotes financial literacy and other causes as a volunteer, and his children, who graduated from Indiana University.

“Quite a few years ago, even before I was the mayor,” he said, “I was a tutor at the Boys and Girls Clubs. One day, I was there helping kids with their homework. … A boy said, ‘Both my daddies are in jail.’ That breaks your heart. We are in a multigenerational cycle right now where the parents don’t know how to be parents … because no one showed them. I learned a long time ago that unless you see it you can’t conceive it. So what do you do?

“We have to expand what the school is,” Ballard said. “It has to be a health center. It has to be a counseling center. It may have to be a job counseling center for some of these parents. It has to be more of a community model. The school has to be more than just the school.”

If the students don’t receive help to achieve success during their educational years, he said, they are more likely to make the wrong choices and end up in jail.

“The vast, vast majority of any city’s budget across the nation is public safety,” Ballard said. “We spend an enormous amount of time and money on 4 to 5 percent of the population because we didn’t do the right thing back then [when they were in school]. … Somebody has to step in and break that cycle.”

Public safety also is a priority for his administration, he said, as is supporting the police officers and firefighters who risk their lives every day to serve and protect others in the line of duty.

“I think half of the firefighters in the City of Indianapolis are from [Father Thomas] Scecina [Memorial High School] or Cathedral High School,” Ballard said. “… The police and firefighters do such a great job. They see [tragic] things all the time that you and I don’t see. That has to have an effect on them. I’m just so proud of what they do, and I try to pat them on the back as much as I can. Anybody who wears that uniform and goes into danger on behalf of all of us really is special to me. I’ll continue to support them.”

Before offering a closing prayer, Bishop Coyne thanked the mayor for “his good words on behalf of Catholic education.”

Catholic schools are successful, the bishop said, because of their dual mission of formation and education.

“It’s about educating the mind, the spirit and the heart,” Bishop Coyne said. “When children come into our schools, we’re forming them not just to pass tests, but also to become good citizens of the city, the state and the nation.

“We’re about community,” he said. “We’re about caring. We’re about holding the students to standards of behavior, which we can do better and easier because we’re private schools. Formation is what makes us so strong and so good as Catholic schools.”

St. Simon the Apostle parishioner Jackie Byers of Indianapolis, who serves on the budget and finance committee of the archdiocesan Finance Council, said after the program that she was glad to hear Ballard commend the good work of Catholic schools.

“They are a great model for other schools,” Byers said. “It’s really neat to see kids from all different economic statuses, different schools and different family backgrounds coming together and developing as good Christian young people.” †