The Economist November 20th 2021 United States 45Almost all of it was recorded on video
tape, by security cameras, witnesses’ mo
bile phones, and, crucially to the prosecu
tion’s case, an fbidrone. What the jurors
had been asked to decide was how to inter
pret that evidence. Was Mr Rittenhouse, as
alleged by the prosecution, a naive “chaos
tourist” who went to Kenosha to play at be
ing a vigilante and then shot his way out of
a scary but not actually lifethreatening
confrontation? Or was he, as the defence
argued, a wellmeaning young man who
set out to help and was ambushed by un
hinged, criminal rioters, who he was
forced to shoot? “If I would have let Mr Ro
senbaum take my firearm from me, he
would have used it and killed me with it
and probably killed more people”, claimed
Mr Rittenhouse on the stand. Mr Binger ar
gued that Mr Rosenbaum wasinfactthe
one threatened, by the rifle.
Earlier in the trial, Bruce Schroeder,the
judge, had stressed that the decisionwas
“not a political trial”. Yet in his juryinstruc
tions, he also specifically told themto“pay
no heed to the opinions of anyone—even
the president of the United Statesorthe
president before him”. Duringlastyear’s
election campaign, Joe Biden posteda vid
eo that implied that Mr Rittenhousewasa
white supremacist (others called him a
“domestic terrorist”). Donald Trump by
contrast suggested that he wasonlyde
fending himself.
Ultimately, politics is hardtoavoidin
cases like this, because the lawasksa jury
to decide what is a “reasonable”useofa
gun, says Samuel Buell of DukeUniversity.
That is not something most Americans
agree on. In the past decadeor so,the
“open carry” of weapons, particularlyto
sensitive events such as protests,hasbur
geoned, led by rightwing progunactiv
ists. Generally it is legal. And yetinmost
states, pointing a gun at somebodyalso
constitutes an assault. The rulesonwhatis
acceptable conduct and what isdangerous
are deeply unclear. America finds itself
“looking to specific high profiletrialsasa
way of trying to settle contestablesocialis
sues that the political system hasfailedto
grapple with”, says Mr Buell.
Sadly, such trials seem suretoprolifer
ate. Even as the jury weighedMrRitten
house’s fate, lawyers in Georgiawerebusy
fighting another case, of threewhitemen
accused of killing a black man,Ahmaud
Arbery, in February last year. LikeMrRit
tenhouse’s victims, Mr Arbery was also
shot at close range during a physicalstrug
gle. As in Kenosha, it was filmed.Andlike
Mr Rittenhouse, his killers alsoclaimed
that their guns could have been used
against them. Whatever the verdict,nosin
gle court case will provide a goodanswerto
the question of when shootinga personis
acceptable. That is something morethan 12
Americans at a time must answer.n
SchoolsAnswered prayers
“I
never envisionedsendingmychil
dren to a Catholic school. I have a good
public school down the block from my
house,” says Laura Camisa, mother of two
girls aged five and seven. She and her fam
ily live in an expensive Brooklyn neigh
bourhood in a highperforming school dis
trict. Ms Camisa’s older daughter was in
kindergarten when schools shut down in
2020 because of the pandemic. Remote
learning was difficult for her daughter.
Once happy and outgoing, she became
withdrawn. “This is not working”, Ms Ca
misa remembers saying to herself. After
hearing good things about St Joseph the
Worker, a nearby Catholic school, she de
cided to send her children there.
The Camisas are one of thousands of
families newly enrolled in Catholic
schools. Falls in pupil numbers of a couple
of percentage points a year had been the
norm for years. The number had fallen
from a peak in the early 1960s, when Catho
lic schools had 5.2m pupils, to around 1.6m
last year, which meant a lot of empty desks.
But this autumn dioceses all over the coun
try are seeing increases in enrolments. The
National Catholic Educational Association
is still collecting and analysing the latest
pupil data, but its preliminary numbers
show increases in most dioceses.
The BrooklynQueens diocese in New
York, one of the biggest in the country, is
saw increases for the first time in a decade
or more. Nearly 60% of its schools are
growing, with many increasing by 10%.
Partnership Schools, a network of Catholicschools in New York City and in Cleveland,
saw a 16% increase. The diocese of Spring
field, in Massachusetts, is up by 13%. Ar
lington’s diocese, which takes in the sub
urbs of Washington, dc, increased by 6%.
The Archdiocese of Baltimore, the county’s
oldest, saw a similar increase. Chicago’s
archdiocese, which includes some sub
urbs, saw a 5% increase. Enrolment in
creased by nearly 4% in Catholic elemen
tary schools in Philadelphia’s archdiocese.
Why are Catholic schools suddenly
growing? Last autumn many publicschool
systems delayed reopening and did not of
fer fulltime inclass learning. When Cath
olic schools reopened, most provided in
person learning. This appealed to families
who struggled with remote learning—ma
ny of the new pupils are children whose
parents cannot work from home. Most
Catholic schools had plenty of space to so
cially distance: those empty classrooms
came in very handy.
Families took note, including non
Catholics. In 1970 only 2.7% of the pupil
population was nonCatholic. Last year it
was one in five. In some dioceses it neared
two in five. Kathleen PorterMagee, super
intendent of Partnership Schools, says the
children in her Cleveland schools are near
ly all nonCatholic: “We like to quote the
late Cardinal Hickey of the Archdiocese of
Washington who said, ‘We educate our
communities, not because they are Catho
lic, but because we are’.”
Catholic superintendents and enrol
ment directors are giddy about the in
crease. Mary Pat Donoghue of America’s
Conference of Catholic Bishops hopes it
will stabilise the pupil population. Father
Joe Corpora of the University of Notre
Dame warns: “We’ll never get another
chance like this again.” Some dioceses and
schools are working on retention and mar
keting plans, a first for many.
Catholic schools are not cheap. Tuition
averages $4,800 a year for elementary
schools and high school costs more than
$11,000. Historically, parishioners helped
offset tuition costs with what they put in
the offertory basket. But as fewer people
went to church, that funding stream de
creased. The many sexualabuse scandals
have also hurt enrolment. Charter schools,
which share some of the attributes of Cath
olic ones (uniforms, discipline, communi
ty values) also drew prospective pupils
away from Catholic schools. It is hard to
compete with free.
Even so, many families are willing to
pay. Ms Camisa and her husband have had
to rejig their finances to afford tuition. “We
moved [schools] because of the pandemic,
but we stayed because of what we saw at St
Joe’s.” When public schools restored in
person learning,she did not return. “We’ll
probably stayCatholic the whole way to
high school.”nQUEENS, NEW YORK
Catholic schools are seeing increases in
enrolment for the first time in years