Ever since the New York and Brooklyn dioceses announced multiple school closings, people are reacting as if it were totally unexpected. But anyone involved in the daily operations of the parochial schools saw the writing on the wall a long time ago. The decision to close dozens of elementary schools at the end of the school year was not made overnight.

When Cardinal O’Connor was head of the New York archdiocese, the school my children attended on Staten Island was on a list of schools to be closed. I joined efforts with other parents to raise funds, and, while we were not very successful, our efforts alone must have persuaded the cardinal to spare us. The fact that it is an inner-city parochial school probably was a huge factor, because the New York archdiocese is committed to keeping those schools open.

Since this is an election year, we can expect aspiring candidates for mayor to exploit the closings to generate interest in their campaigns. Oddly enough, the incumbent mayor, Michael Bloomberg, seems more interested in acquiring the buildings for use by the city’s public-school system.

That hasn’t escaped the notice of one Queens mother, Alice Lemos, whose son is a student at St. Theresa’s, one of the schools that will close at the end of the school year. She sent me an e-mail about Mr. Bloomberg’s comments: “Instead of saying, I WILL HELP YOU DEVISE A PLAN TO KEEP SOME OF THE SCHOOLS OPEN, he wants to grab the buildings for the public schools. I hope that when people vote, they realize this.”

Ms. Lemos, who is Jewish, sends her son to St. Theresa because of “values and safety.” The local public schools are crowded and unsafe, she says, and many non-Catholics attend her son’s school: “Sikh kids, Buddhists, a few Protestants, a couple of Jewish kids, my son’s friend several years ago was Moslem – unfortunately, he moved to Indiana!”

The subject of school vouchers and tax credits keeps coming up as a way to save these schools, but that is unlikely to happen without a change in the state constitution, which presents legal challenges to the use of vouchers at religious institutions. The Blaine Amendment should have been repealed a long time ago, but there does not seem to be enough political will to do so.

Ms. Lemos, a Republican, says: “I think many of the clergy still do not realize that their best friends are conservatives and Republicans, who support vouchers, tuition tax credits and faith based values and are pro life. The local churches play up to the politicos who do not support vouchers and are basically against them! Such as pro abort Eric Gioia in my neighborhood. Now he is crying crocodile tears over the closed schools. Anthony Weiner is another one.”

There have been scads of editorials espousing vouchers and tax credits to save these schools. I am more practical and think other solutions are more viable than waiting for a crippled state Legislature, mired in scandal and corruption, to act. Parents who send their children to parochial school in the inner city find that the sacrifices can sometimes be overwhelming. Help is available through several organizations that provide scholarships for children in need. The Children’s Scholarship Fund, at http://www.scholarshipfund.org, is a national organization, based at Manhattan, that can help. There is also the Inner-City Scholarship Fund, and several others.

One of the main reasons for closing a school is declining enrollment, and usually that happens because low-income families can no longer afford the rising tuition costs. Those scholarships can help, but it should also be noted that several of the doomed schools are located in affluent communities where tuition is affordable and the public-school system works. In those areas, the closings may be painful but they are reasonable.

Some alumni consider themselves survivors of Catholic schools. I happen to be an advocate. I will be eternally grateful for the superb education I received from the nuns, who expected all of us in the barrio to succeed in spite of our poverty and dysfunctional environment. No excuses were made for our circumstances. We were there to learn, and we did. That tradition still stands, and that is the main reason Catholic schools perform better, on less than a quarter of the public schools’ budget.

I have an idea. Have a telethon where anyone who went to Catholic school can donate some money to a special fund. I’d gladly contribute, and I’ll bet there are millions of others who will too. Then, too, we can always pray.