Catholic schools are not only an important part of the nation’s education infrastructure, but they are doing an outstanding job in educating their students who come from inner-city neighborhoods, an advocate for children’s education assured hundreds of local supporters of Catholic education.

Darla M. Romfo, president and chief operating officer of the Children’s Scholarship Fund, was the keynote speaker for the ninth annual “Making a Difference — Celebration of Catholic Education Dinner” on Thursday evening in Adam’s Mark hotel in downtown Buffalo.

“We are not a faith-based organization,” Romfo explained before her address.

“But what I didn’t know when I came here to work 10 years ago is that most of our kids would ultimately end up using their scholarships in inner- city parochial schools. So, I began this whole experience of learning what was happening inside these parochial schools, and it’s phenomenal what they do in terms of closing the achievement gap and graduation rates,” she added.

More than 105,000 children, many of them from the inner city, have received scholarships through Romfo’s organization since 1999, and more than 29,000 are currently receiving scholarships.

“I run a national organization. We happen to have partnership with Bison Fund. We don’t even have a partnership with the diocese [of Buffalo] . . . I’ve just gotten really familiar with people in Catholic school circles because we have a lot of kids in Catholic schools, and I wanted to know about these schools,” Romfo said.

She described Catholic schools as “a positive force in American culture” and “a really important part of the education infrastructure.” They have become a model for how some charter schools structure their programs, Romfo said.

There are a few basic things that parochial schools are doing to help their inner-city students achieve academic success, she explained.

“There is a lot of order and structure and discipline and a lot of respect and love,” Romfo said. “All of those things factor in together. I go into Catholic schools all the time, and no matter how bad the neighborhood is, you always walk into a place that is incredibly clean and well ordered, the children stand up and say good morning to the principal, good morning, visitor. They are excited to learn.”

During the dinner, Denise Amato, a religion teacher at SS. Peter & Paul Catholic School in Williamsville, received the diocese’s Sister Lucille Socciarelli/ Father John Sturm “Making a Difference” award.