As most educators know, Catholic schools work and have worked for a long time. Sociologist James Coleman and colleagues Thomas Hoffer and Sally Kilgore, in 1982, were among the first to document Catholic schools' academic successes, in "High School Achievement: Public and Private Schools." A variety of studies since, by scholars at the University of Chicago, Northwestern, the Brookings Institution, and Harvard, have all supported the conclusion that Catholic schools do a better job educating children, especially the poor and minorities, than public schools. So, if they are so good, why are Catholic schools disappearing? And if there are so many more Catholics, why are there fewer schools? No more nuns? No more money? Charter schools? Loss of faith? Indolence? Scandal? Irrelevance? "The answer is fairly simple," says James Cultrara, director for education for the New York State Catholic Conference. "The rising cost of providing a Catholic education has made it more difficult for parents to meet those rising costs." The loss of nuns has undoubtedly added to the financial burden. Demographic change, and the failure to respond to it, has created other burdens. Since the Catholic school "system" is actually a loose and quite decentralized confederation of 7,500 schools supported, for the most part, by 19,000 parishes in more than 150 dioceses, it took "the Church" some time to see the trends, much less develop new strategies to respond to them. The "new reality," says Samuel Freedman of the "Times," is that Catholic schools "will have to become expert fundraisers, marketers, promoters, lobbyists, and miracle workers to survive. Some of their new tactics are discussed. (Contains 3 figures.)