The history of Catholic education in the United States extends from the early colonial era in Louisiana and Maryland to the parochial school system set up in most parishes in the 19th century, to hundreds of colleges, all down to the present.

Colonial era

There was a small Catholic population in the English colonies, chiefly in Maryland. It supported local schools, often under Jesuit auspices. The Oblate Sisters of Providence, the first Black order of nuns, pioneered in educating Black children in the area, founding St. Frances Academy in 1828 (the first and oldest Black Catholic school in the US).

Much more important were schools of New Orleans, under Spanish and French control until 1803. Well-to-do families sent their children to private Catholic schools run by Ursulines and other orders of nuns. The earliest continually operating school for girls in the United States is Ursuline Academy in New Orleans. It was founded in 1727 and graduated the first female pharmacist and the first woman to contribute a book of literary merit. It was the first free school and first retreat center for ladies, and first classes for female African-American slaves, free women of color, and Native Americans. In the Gulf Coast and Mississippi Valley, Ursulines provided the first center of social welfare in the Mississippi Valley, first boarding school in Louisiana and the first school of music in New Orleans.Robenstine Clark, "French Colonial Policy and the Education of Women and Minorities: Louisiana in the Early Eighteenth Century," History of Education Quarterly (1992) 32#2 pp. 193-211 in JSTOR

Some orders, like the Sisters of the Holy Family (the second order open to Black women), also educated enslaved children and other Black students who otherwise were not allowed to be taught. Specifically, they brought literacy and training in job skills to both free and enslaved black girls, especially through St. Mary's Academy (founded during the Civil War and still operating).Donna Porche-Frilot and Petra Munro Hendry, "'Whatever Diversity of Shade May Appear': Catholic Women Religious Educators in Louisiana, 1727-1862," Catholic Southwest (2010) 21: 34-62.

The Catholic education system in place in Arizona, New Mexico and California, which joined the United States in 1848, had largely been dismantled by the Mexican government prior to the Mexican-American War as a result of the Mexican secularization act of 1833.

Catholic universities were also founded during this era, and grew exponentially alongside parochial schools in the late 19th and early- to mid-20th centuries. The universities remained strong even after the parochial schools went into decline during the national religious upheaval of the 70s and 80s, and many continue to this day.

Parochial era

As the nation was mostly Protestant in the 19th century, there was anti-Catholic sentiment related to heavy immigration from Catholic Ireland after the 1840s, and a feeling that Catholic children should be educated in public schools to become American.

The main impetus was fear that exposure to Protestant teachers in the public schools, and Protestant fellow students, would lead to a loss of faith. Protestants reacted by strong opposition to any public funding of parochial schools.Thomas E. Buckley, "A Mandate for Anti-Catholicism: The Blaine Amendment," America 27 September 2004, 18–21. The Catholics nevertheless built their elementary schools, parish by parish, using very low paid sisters as teachers.

Blaine Amendments

In 1875, Republican President Ulysses S. Grant called for a Constitutional amendment that would mandate free public schools and prohibit the use of public funds for "sectarian" schools. He said he feared a future with "patriotism and intelligence on one side and superstition, ambition and greed on the other" which he identified with the Catholic Church. Grant called for public schools that would be "unmixed with atheistic, pagan or sectarian teaching."William B. Hesseltine, Ulysses S. Grant, Politician (New York, 1935), pp. 377-378

A leading republican, Senator James G. Blaine of Maine had proposed such an amendment to the Constitution in 1874.Sister Marie Carolyn Klinkhamer, "The Blaine Amendment of 1875: Private Motives for Political Action." Catholic Historical Review (1956): 15-49. The amendment was turned down by Congress in 1875 and never became federal law. However, it would be used as a model for so-called "Blaine Amendments" incorporated into 34 state constitutions over the next three decades. These amendments prohibited the use of public funds to fund parochial schools and are still in effect today.Steven K. Green, "The Blaine Amendment Reconsidered," American Journal of Legal History (1992): 38+

Colleges and universities Fed increasingly throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries by the growing number of Catholic school students at the primary and secondary level, Catholic universities have existed since the early years of the United States, starting with Georgetown in 1789.

Women's colleges The first Catholic women's college in the US was Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College in Indiana, which was granted a charter for the higher education of women in 1846. Notre Dame of Maryland opened a four-year college in 1895. Another 42 Catholic women's colleges opened by 1925.

The ACCU

The Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities was founded in 1899.

Parochial school growth and structure By 1912 "The greatest religious fact in the United States today", stated Archbishop John Lancaster Spalding, "is the Catholic School system, maintained without any aid by the people who love it". It includes over 20,000 teachers, and over 1,000,000 pupils, represents $100,000,000 worth of property; and costs over $15,000,000 annually."Schools" in The Catholic Encyclopedia (1912) online In 1904, Catholic educators formed an organization to coordinate their efforts on a national scale: the Catholic Educational Association which later changed its name to the National Catholic Educational Association.Jay P. Dolan, The American Catholic Experience (1985) pp 262-74

In the classrooms, the highest priorities were piety, orthodoxy, and strict discipline. Knowledge of the subject matter was a minor concern, and in the late 19th century few of the teachers in parochial schools had gone beyond the 8th grade themselves. The sisters came from numerous denominations, and there was no effort to provide joint teachers training programs. The bishops were indifferent. Finally around 1911, led by the Catholic University in Washington, Catholic colleges began summer institutes to train the sisters in pedagogical techniques. Long past World War II, the Catholic schools were noted for inferior conditions compared to the public schools, and fewer well-trained teachers.Jay P. Dolan, The American Catholic Experience (1985) pp 286-91James W. Sanders, The Education of an urban Minority: Catholics in Chicago, 1833–1965 (Oxford University Press, 1977).

The number of schools and students grew apace with the taxpayer-funded public schools. In 1900, the Church supported 3,500 parochial schools, usually under the control of the local parish.

By 1920, the number of elementary schools had reached 6,551, enrolling 1.8 million pupils taught by 42,000 teachers, the great majority of whom were nuns. Secondary education likewise boomed. In 1900, there were only about 100 Catholic high schools, but by 1920 more than 1,500 were in operation.David P. Baker, "Schooling All the Masses: Reconsidering the Origins of American Schooling in the Postbellum Era," Sociology of Education (1999) 72#4 pp. 197-215 in JSTOR

In the mid-19th century standard textbooks used in the public schools had a distinctive Protestant tone, with occasional attacks on the Catholic Church in Europe. See Sister Marie L. Fell, The Foundations of Nativism in American Textbooks, 1783–1860 (The Catholic University of America, 1941). At the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore (1885) the bishops called for the preparation of acceptable textbooks, and Catholic publishers obliged. Professor Eugene F. Provenzo argues that by the 1890s Catholic educators had selected and adapted non-religious textbook content such that parochial students learned mainstream American political and cultural values without compromising their religious beliefs. The Catholic textbooks presented a generalized nondenominational Christianity and omitted sectarian arguments. There were a few exceptions such as occasional mention of Guardian Angels. Beyond the textbook matter parochial schools copied the new pedagogical techniques being introduced by the mainstream educational system. Apart from catechism classes (where the students learned that Protestants were likely damned to hell), the typical parochial school covered the same material in much the same way as the public schools. Irish Catholic women as nuns made up the parochial teaching staff, Furthermore Irish Cathollc lay women became increasingly prominent in the teaching staff of public schools in the major cities. After 1900 the mainstream textbooks largely dropped an anti-Catholic tone.Eugene F. Provenzo, Jr. "Catholic Textbooks and Cultural Legitimacy, 1840–1935" in Eugene F. Provenzo, Jr. et al. eds. The Textbook as Discourse: Sociocultural Dimensions of American Schoolbooks (2010) pp. 47-54. Supreme Court upholds parochial schools in 1925

In 1922, the voters of Oregon passed an initiative amending Oregon Law Section 5259, the Compulsory Education Act. The law unofficially became known as the Oregon School Law. The citizens' initiative was primarily aimed at eliminating parochial schools, including Catholic schools. The law caused outraged Catholics to organize locally and nationally for the right to send their children to Catholic schools and thereby prevent them from socializing with and possibly marrying Protestants or otherwise assimilating into American culture, . In Pierce v. Society of Sisters (1925), the United States Supreme Court declared the Oregon's Compulsory Education Act unconstitutional in a ruling that has been called "the Magna Carta of the parochial school system."Thomas J. Shelley, "The Oregon School Case and the National Catholic Welfare Conference." Catholic Historical Review (1989) 75#3 pp: 439-457. in JSTOR

Irish in the Northeast By 1890 the Irish, who controlled the Church in the U.S., had built an extensive network of parishes and parish schools ("parochial schools") across the urban Northeast and Midwest. The Irish and other Catholic ethnic groups looked to parochial schools not only to protect their religion, but to enhance their culture and language.Timothy Walch, Parish School: American Catholic Parochial Education From Colonial Times to the Present (2003)James J. Hennesey, American Catholics: A History of the Roman Catholic Community in the United States (1983) p 172

Polish in Chicago

Polish Americans arrived in large numbers, 1890–1914, concentrating in industrial and mining districts in the Northeast and Great Lakes areas. They often sent their children to parochial schools and encouraged their young women to become nuns and teachers. In 1932 close to 300,000 Polish Americans were enrolled in over 600 Polish grade schools in the United States.see pp 59-60 Very few of the Polish Americans who graduated from grade school at the time pursued high school or college.

In Chicago, 35,862 students (60 percent of the Polish population) attended Polish parochial schools in 1920. Nearly every Polish parish in the American Catholic Church had a school, whereas in Italian parishes, it was typically one in ten parishes.Thomas I. Monzell, "The Catholic Church and the Americanization of the Polish Immigrant," Polish American Studies (1969) 26#1 pp. 1-15 in JSTOR

Segregation in the South