Catholic schools

[AngryOldDem]

This was in my parish bulletin this past weekend (edited for length):

"Within the next few weeks, you will receive a letter...from 'Partnerships 4 Success,' which is an organization of...area business persons, Catholic educators, and religious promoting the value of Catholic grade schools and high schools. ... Their primary focus is to address the affordability issue, which is the greatest impediment for some Catholic families wanting to send their children to Catholic schools, by identifying the part-time job needs in the business community and the Catholic families willing to work part-time to earn additional income for payment of tuition." The blurb goes on to say a survey card will be sent out to Catholic parents, and then the parents will be matched up with business needs.

I'm not sure exactly why, but this doesn't sit right with me.

If parents want to take on additional jobs to pay for tuition, that is their choice. But I think the business community and the parishes could also come up with more scholarships, more generous financial aid packages, etc., to help. My daughter is a high school freshman, and last year we briefly considered sending her to a Catholic high school (my husband's alma mater). The tuition, however, was just too high for our financial comfort zone, so we opted to continue in public schools. For us to have been able to send her to that school, we would have had to have had significant part-time job income, on top of what my husband already earns in his full-time programming job. Planning for college, we reasoned, made more financial sense for us than blowing a great deal of money on tuition now. So, just how realistic is the expectation that taking on a part-time job will be what it takes to solve the affordability problem?

Another issue I have is that we know a lot of parents who are sending their kids to Catholic schools, and often they have little good to say about the curriculum, other than that they do get religious education. I have known couples who have had to get remedial help for their children when their kids transferred to public schools or went off to college, while others complain that the staffing and teaching is not of the highest quality, mainly because these schools cannot compete with the public sector in terms of salary, benefits, etc. In other words, at least here, you don't seem to be getting your money's worth.

How do you feel about Catholic schools and Catholic education? With declining enrollment and soaring operating expenses and tuition costs, how viable are these schools anymore?

(Just another topic to jump-start this board; don't all talk at once.)

[SeanQuinn]

1. I'm going to Catholic elem/middle now, but I'm going to public HS.

Parents and I think they build foundation, but in HS, I can see the real world.

[Beer Snob-50]

2. I know of people who have sent their kids to Catholic school

and then due to expenses to public. they were ahead of their peers in the public school in most areas.

[demosincebirth]

4. Catholic schools in all areas are

ahead of public schools.

You mentioned expense and I had to think back to my grammer school days in the late forties and early fifties. Five of us went to St.Patricks grammer school in Oakland, and the tuition was $1.00 a month for each of us. In high school we paid 8 bucks a month for each of us. My father worked for the RR and that was quite a chunk out of his paycheck every month. I realize now, how much they sacrificed for us to get a Catholic education

[AngryOldDem]

5. Maybe where you are, but not where I live

Except for perhaps discipline and religion, Catholic schools here are not markedly better than their public counterparts. And to me, who would like to send her kids to Catholic school (mainly because of smaller class sizes and emphasis on discipline, deportment and otherwise) that is most disappointing. I think it's because of the lower salary range that Catholic school teachers get as opposed to public school-employed teachers, as well as a lack of comparable benefits. We've heard from too many "dissatisfied customers" of Catholic schools to think that all of these people have axes to grind.

Even with discounts factored in, you really have to be well-off to send your kid to one. (I'll check with my husband, but I think a year's tuition at the high school we looked at for our daughter -- my husband's alma mater -- came to a little over $10,000 a year.) And financial aid isn't all that great, either, since the schools are already a drain on most parishes, thus the idea of the program that I referenced in my original post.

This may be different where you are. But here, if truth be told, most Catholic schools are on life support and nobody is willing to pull the plug. I find it very sad, don't get me wrong.

I also understand the sacrifice your dad made. My husband's parents put five children through Catholic high school, with limited means. I am humbled and awed by that.

[demosincebirth]

6. I guess you may be right , but our diocese is building

another high school to open in the year 2008, with the first freshman class. All our Catholic high schools in the diocese (5) are all in great demand. A friend of mine, whose kid graduated from UC Berkeley, said it cost him more, per year, to send his son to catholic high school, than to Cal.

[hedgehog]

3. It's really a mixed bag depending on where you live.

In some areas, the Catholic schools are a refuge from poorly functioning public schools. In other areas they are on par or better. In some areas they cost so much they are for the upper middle class and scholarship students. It all depends on the local situation. When my kids were little, people in the parish sent their kids to the parish school long enough to ensure they learned to read and learned basic arithmetic, then they transferred to the public school about second or third grade. The parents figured the tuition was worth it for the extra attention in the primary grades to ensure a good start.

One mistake the bishop here is making is closing parish schools and opening what he calls "bishop's academies" instead. He's pushing "Catholic Education", but what most people want is a parochial school. The difference is that a parochial school is community based and very family oriented especially for grades K-6. We lost students every time the bishop appointed a principal who curried favor with the Diocese and gained students when the job went to a parishioner.

[TriMetFan]

7. My kids go to Catholic school. And our schools here in

Portland OR. are way better then the Public schools. There is a waiting list to get into our schools here. Also Parishes that don't have schools help pay to send kids to Catholic Schools. Now on the part-time jobs. That is not something we could do. We already put in over 350 hours extra to the School as parents and then I help teach Sunday School at our Church. My partner and I are very involved with our boy's school. Now the scary part is when the boys go to high school it will cost us about $1,000 a month for one and for both about $1,500. Thank God that is still 6 years from now.