Catechism Class/Religious Education

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boppaid

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I am running into a problem. Our religious ed classes are $140 per student…$240 for two children in a family. I am so nervous, because we have JUST joined a new Parish and cannot afford this. I doubt they will cut the fee for us, since we’re such new members. (I will ask, but still.) Their website says that the actual cost per child is $225 and they re subsidizing the rest. Honestly, I cannot fathom what that $225 goes for. The teachers volunteer their time, the textbook cannot cost that much, crayons, markers, bibles (that they reuse every year)…it doesn’t add up. Can someone help me figure it out? My protestant friends all have their religious education programs covered free by the church, so this is just not making sense to me. But, regardless, I can’t afford it. How should I approach them? Thanks. 🙂
 
boppaid said:
I am running into a problem. Our religious ed classes are $140 per student…$240 for two children in a family. I am so nervous, because we have JUST joined a new Parish and cannot afford this. I doubt they will cut the fee for us, since we’re such new members. (I will ask, but still.) Their website says that the actual cost per child is $225 and they re subsidizing the rest. Honestly, I cannot fathom what that $225 goes for. The teachers volunteer their time, the textbook cannot cost that much, crayons, markers, bibles (that they reuse every year)…it doesn’t add up. Can someone help me figure it out? My protestant friends all have their religious education programs covered free by the church, so this is just not making sense to me. But, regardless, I can’t afford it. How should I approach them? Thanks. 🙂
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That’s quite a steep fee.
Perhaps they’re factoring in expenses such as catechist training.
These fees are generally waived or reduced for families who cannot afford them. Your newness to the parish is irrelevant.
I suggest you leave a message for the director of religious education to call you – and if you don’t receive a reply within a week, write a letter to the pastor, or speak with him directly (phone or after Mass).
 
Is there a student retreat included in the fee perhaps? Part of it could be textbooks. (As a history professor, I’m very aware of how shockingly high textbook prices have become.) An average textbook goes for $60-80 now, and many are MUCH more…
 
Our RE program costs at least that much per child. Books, retreats, DRE salary, building costs, materials and all that really add up.

You could do homeschooling religious ed. It would save you money plus ensure your children were learning the right thing. Whatever you are uncomfortable with - you could learn together. It would be a great opportunity with your kids!

If that is not possible I would talk to the DRE. Maybe there is a way to volunteer to reduce the cost.
 
boppaid said:
I am running into a problem. Our religious ed classes are $140 per student…$240 for two children in a family. I am so nervous, because we have JUST joined a new Parish and cannot afford this. I doubt they will cut the fee for us, since we’re such new members. (I will ask, but still.) Their website says that the actual cost per child is $225 and they re subsidizing the rest. Honestly, I cannot fathom what that $225 goes for. The teachers volunteer their time, the textbook cannot cost that much, crayons, markers, bibles (that they reuse every year)…it doesn’t add up. Can someone help me figure it out? My protestant friends all have their religious education programs covered free by the church, so this is just not making sense to me. But, regardless, I can’t afford it. How should I approach them? Thanks. 🙂
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Ask them for a detailed breakout of the costs. The Mission of the Church is rooted in Evangelization and Catechesis.
 
At our parish, the cost is $25 per child with a maximum of $50 per family. We are a small parish with about 460 families and have a full time DRE. All of the other parishes in the area charge about the same. $140 seems quite excessive for tuition. If the parish has to charge this much, I would suggest they look for grants through their local archdiocese or do fundraisors such as picnics or raffles or something else. The textbooks that we use for our religious education class are the RCL Faith First series. I believe that they are about $9 to $10 each. The parish may need work done and let you pay for the tuition that way.Hopefully the parish will work with you because no child should be denied an education simply because of the lack of funds. That would be quite a tragedy.
 
boppaid said:
I am running into a problem. Our religious ed classes are $140 per student…$240 for two children in a family. I am so nervous, because we have JUST joined a new Parish and cannot afford this. I doubt they will cut the fee for us, since we’re such new members. (I will ask, but still.) Their website says that the actual cost per child is $225 and they re subsidizing the rest. Honestly, I cannot fathom what that $225 goes for. The teachers volunteer their time, the textbook cannot cost that much, crayons, markers, bibles (that they reuse every year)…it doesn’t add up. Can someone help me figure it out? My protestant friends all have their religious education programs covered free by the church, so this is just not making sense to me. But, regardless, I can’t afford it. How should I approach them? Thanks. 🙂
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Speak privately with the DRE. S/he may wave or reduce the fee in your case. At my parish the fee is waved for RE teachers and reduce for teachers aides. This may also be an option for you at your parish.
 
Call me crazy, but I don’t recall my parents paying for any catechism classes. 1965-1975. I was a CCD teacher and I don’t recall asking parents to pay for anything other than retreats or food for lockin’s. The DRE gave us our teaching materials and we had training every quarter during the year, plus teacher retreats. All of us were “volunteer”. The DRE was the only one paid.

Is this for teaching public school Catholic children, once a week for about an hour and half from Sept to May? If so, that is ridiculas. If that fee was charged to public school Catholic parents…you sure wouldn’t see their kids there. I also don’t recall CCD being like “school”…homework, thick text books, etc. I remember a tear out type book when I was younger…and mimeo-graph (remember that smell 😃 )machine worksheets in middle and high school. When I had confirmation class…we had pamphlet like lessons.

I do remember at one of our in house teacher meetings…we all found it difficult to get kids focused on what we were supposed to be teaching them…and have them (& their parents) take it seriously…vs. a fun hour at the Catholic school or Church hall on Wednesday nights.

We chose Wednesday nights, because alot of the Catholic kids were going to the Baptist/Holiness/Methodist/Episcopalian Wednesday night prayer services. The kids would have fun activities…while the parents attended the main Church for a prayer service.

Meanwhile, the parents would drop their kids off at the Catholic School or Church hall at 4:00 pm on Wednesdays…go to Wal-Mart, the gym, etc…and come back at 5:30 to pick up the kids. Very few darkened the door or came in to see what was going on.

Each year, the DRE would get the parents at each grade level together. You can guess where the largest attendance of parents came from…“first communion” second grade and “confirmation” 7/8th grade. Anything in between was bare bones…and attended 2 to 1 by the mothers.

I hope you talk to someone about that price…and yes, I would ask for an itemized list.
 
when you register for the parish make sure to get envelopes or on other program that tracks you donations so you can prove your support, even if it is minimal at this stage in your life, it should be regular. definitely explain your need situation and ask for reduction or elimination of fees, or payment plan, it will be granted.

parishes who tithe and have embraced sacrificial giving, stewardship spirituality can support not only RE but Catholic schools. Those who do not encourage this spirituality have to get the cost from those who participate in various programs.

the cost also includes overhead for the location classes are held, and salary for professional director of religious education and support staff, if any, and is divided among families who participate. More families participating would also lower per family cost.

texts are up to and over $20 now, having almost doubled in cost as publishers merge, new editions of popular texts are introduced, and catechist manuals and supporting resources, including subscription to publisher website, has also increased dramatically. Just went shopping for classroom supplies, even at sale prices cost has been astronomical.

at least half our families will be on monthly payment plans, even as low as our fees are, and not all of them will keep that commitment, which means I do not have cash in hand yet to purchase what I need for this year, and it will come out of general parish funds. (which is as it should be IMO we are working toward a stronger stewardship mentality, but not there yet)>

our fee covers only a fraction of the true cost per student (and my salary is NOT the biggest cost center by any means).

if every child in the parish participated we could actually lower fees, since the overhead would remain virtually the same for 1500 as for 800 children
 
We charge $20 per student and about 1/3 of the fees are waived each year for financial need. In order to hold costs down, we went to a non-consumable text series so we only purchase an inexpensive workbook each year. Still, we are fortunate to have donations since the $20 doesn’t cover the workboodk and classroom supplies, let alone the training for the teachers. We are an all volunteer staff - even the DRE. The DRE is retiring in a few years and the diocese is pushing to have all DREs as salaried staff members. Since we are a small parish, to even pay the DRE minimum wage, we would have to up fees to over $50 per child. While it would be nice to just say the parish should subsidize or simply pay for CCE, we are in our second decade of having Mass in our “hall” while we save to build our “real” Church. There just isn’t any extra cash in the budget.
 
We charge $65 here I think. It used to be $35 but they did a major jump in price a few years ago. When I was asst DRE at my parish I dealt with this all the time… we always waived fees if the person said they couldn’t pay. We did give our catechists a stipend that amounted to about $120 a year though…
 
the parish is required to publish a financial report each year and make information available to parishioners about expenses and income, so ask to see the breakdown for expense of RE in your parish if you have reason to doubt the reasonableness of the charges.
 
Rolltide said:
Is there a student retreat included in the fee perhaps? Part of it could be textbooks. (As a history professor, I’m very aware of how shockingly high textbook prices have become.) An average textbook goes for $60-80 now, and many are MUCH more…
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That is such a ripoff!
If they wanted to the USCCB or local diocese could create lessons to download, print out & xerox – not cheap, maybe but a lot less than $80.
 
MoBeck said:
That is such a ripoff!
If they wanted to the USCCB or local diocese could create lessons to download, print out & xerox – not cheap, maybe but a lot less than $80.
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most textbook publishers and many Catholic websites do have lessons and other resources available for free download.

the cost for HS and college books can be that high, but the average cost for grade school books is between $12 and $23 depending on publisher and edition. Catechist manuals run as high as $60, but come with blackline masters, sometimes CDs, DVDs and many other resources. Some publishers provide them free with so many student books.

the cost of books and supplies is not the only or even the biggest budget item for a parish program.

Overhead is the biggest, then salaries, then resources. The cost for your parish was set to give you the best program w/o taking resources away from other necessary parish activities. Repeat, repeat, repeat, a parish that tithes will not have this problem. Stewardship is the answer.
 
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