Affording catholic education

[mrsp813]

My husband and I would love to send our children to Catholic school. I’m concerned, however, with the tuition. Even if we could afford to send our first, how in the world would we send our second, third, etc!!

Besides appealing to the financial director of the school, what are some ways other Catholic school parents afford this? Our parish’s school is $3700 a year for the first child and $3200 for the second. I can’t even imagine how we can do this on one income.

(I’m a sahm and we plan on more children.)

Thanks so much!

 

[BamaRider]

I dunno Michelle, I can see tuition can be difficult for a one income family.

I suggest visiting the administration to see what if any options are available. You never know till your try.

But I’ll say this, the best Catholic education starts in the home. When I look back I see I could have done a better job, and depended less on the CCD. School is only meant to supplement what is the primary responsibility of the parents.

My son is 28, I find myself helping him with Faith questions, that he probably should have learned long ago, but the way I see it, better late then never.

 

[OutinChgoburbs]

A lot of affording Catholic school in a parish or non-diocesan but Catholic school with a building and teachers depends on where a family lives. Having more than one school in the area from which to choose helps keep the costs down. Regular contributions to the parish help a lot, because there is usually one price for parishioners and non-pairshioners, or one price for Catholics and another for non-Catholics. Even the tithing system set up by such dioceses as Witchita is wonderful, but unfortunately not in practice in all dioceses. Fund raisers I have found as helpful include Market Day, Scrip (Manna, GLS, etc.), pizza sales. I personally don’t like Race for Education, wrapping paper, and any chocolate sales. Some schools offer a Las Vegas Night and silent auctions.

How do we pay for it? We have 8 Catholic elementary schools (PreK3-8) in our immediate suburb, and more in the neighboring suburbs. Competition keeps costs down. We contribute to our parish, and make sure it is properly recorded. We pay $3750 for two children for tutition. We also pay $120 for draw down, $75 for Race for Education, participate in Draw Down night, volunteer where we best can help. We decided to save part of our money by driving older cars. We buy a lot of our clothes “experienced.” We live in a good but not fabulous neighborhood. We don’t go out much. I run a business from home, in addition to my husband’s income.

However, as Guy said, the primary educators of children and keeping them Catholic are the parents. If you are staying home anyway and plan to continue to do so, you might look into home education. It is legal in all 50 states, does not require a teaching certificate, and might be practical for your situation. Enriching and home teaching religion along with CCD/ PSR/ Rel. Ed. might be a good way to start this.

If this wasn’t my second time around raising children, I would be inclined to home educate mine. But we love our school, and think it is well worth the money. We’ll see what happens come time for high school. I am dreading the $7,000-$8,000 a year per child for tuition. We are seriously thinking of moving to a school district that has an excellent public high school, a real gem where my nieces and nephews attend/ have attended, and heavily suplementing their religious education.