CCD Program is Expensive!

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The two people I spoke to in the religious ed department and the rectory don’t seem to know, but they seemed annoyed I was questioning it.
 
It could be that they seemed annoyed because they did not have an answer. 🙂
 
The prices just went up $75 this year! That was one of the reasons I am upset. What could justify that kind of price increase? Nothing has changed as far as I can see and no one in the religious ed dept or the rectory can tell me why. They arent happy with me for questioning it either. I m going to need the (spoken of in whispers) “payment plan” lol
 
idk…it was just the way she asked for my “full name” and the names of my kids in a very terse voice lol…
 
Sorry Laura, hopefully she was just having a bad day. Let us both pray for her. 🙏
 
No I don’t think so. They have an actual school with teachers during the day and they have to pay the teachers for the school they run but then they use the same building for the CCD for kids that go to public school. The CCD is a separate thing.
 
I know. I thought it was expensive before and it just went up another $75 from last year…so yeah, I want to know why…
 
I don’t remember if the prices went up or stayed the same this year. I know we’re paying “more” because it’s a sacrament year for one of our kids. We debated staying with the program at all or just changing churches to one that utilizes the classroom model. In the end we only signed up one kid for the program (the one that’s in his sacrament year). The older one just kind of follows along when my wife does the lessons with him. That kind of kept the price down for us. Not sure if we’ll go back to the program at all next year.
 
Not to change the subject, but I often wondered how churches could demand 10% of a persons income. Some little old people on a fixed income who can’t afford their medicine, for instance, what are they to do? My daughter told me that when she was a Mormon they got together with one of their church authorities and had to submit the wage statement of earned income. They were coerced into the 10% agreement. Sounds like the IRS.

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Gorgias said:
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Phemie:
Other than the cost of the material, our parish incurs little to no cost for religious ed.
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Do you employ a DRE? Do you pay him/her “little to no[thing]”? 😉
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No, we don’t employ a DRE.

The only salary we pay is the priest’s.
 
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Yeah a few posts have referenced salaries in the plural for the Director of Religious Education and his/her STAFF. I’ve never ever encountered that. I have encountered a paid Religious Education Coordinator role in some parishes… but not a director plus additional paid staff.
I wonder if that would be in addition to a full set of staff at the parish school? Must be a suburban American mega-parish thing.
 
Not Mega, we have around 1100 families. DRE and an assistant on staff
 
Gorgias said:
I know. What were they thinking? Second graders should be required to write 10-page essays describing the Thomistic foundation of Sacramental Theology! :roll_eyes: 😉
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Developmentally appropriate yet theologically substantive material is not an outrageous request; the sarcasm is uncalled for.
LauraFS22 said:
I think homeschooling for this would be much more beneficial for the kids and they would likely get more out of it…I just wonder if the church would honor it.
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My parish allowed it. They were so disorganized that they barely followed up. But I made sure to check in with the RE director every so often. CHC has a wonderful program. Preparing to Receive Jesus: A Hands-On Religion Resource (PRJ) | Second Grade - Catholic Heritage Curricula

Are other parishes in your area charging this much? You could poke around online and find out.
 
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LauraFS22 said:
Nothing has changed as far as I can see and no one in the religious ed dept or the rectory can tell me why. They arent happy with me for questioning it either.
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Talk to the pastor. Get past the gatekeepers and talk to the person who can make things happen! 🙂
twf said:
Yeah a few posts have referenced salaries in the plural for the Director of Religious Education and his/her STAFF. I’ve never ever encountered that. I have encountered a paid Religious Education Coordinator role in some parishes… but not a director plus additional paid staff.
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I’ve seen both. In larger parishes, I’ve seen a secretary dedicated to the faith formation office. In smaller parishes, the parish secretary is utilized by the DRE / coordinator of religious education. Either way, there’s a hard dollar cost for staff support. 😉
blackforest said:
Developmentally appropriate yet theologically substantive material is not an outrageous request; the sarcasm is uncalled for.
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So… your hyperbole is reasonable, but my hyperbole isn’t. Riiiiiiight. Got it. :roll_eyes:
 
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We have both a paid DRE and a paid Director of Youth Ministries. The DRE charges $20 per kid, $40 for 2 or more. I, the DYM, charge $15 per kid, $30 for 2 or more except for confirmation year, then it’s $50, or $75 for two or more. We charge more for confirmation due to the material and the cost of the mandatory retreat.

The income the DRE and I collect from fees is less than a 1/4 of our budgets and doesn’t go toward our salaries or benefits at all. If our parish didn’t fund us we would probably have to charge prices like that also. Thank the good Lord our parish is generous with the faith formation of it’s children.
 
Our budgets are stretched so thin nowadays, we did to get the point across to everyone that less is more.
May God help us to afford everything. 🙏🙏🙏👍👍👍
 
woolycaterpillar said:
My daughter told me that when she was a Mormon they got together with one of their church authorities and had to submit the wage statement of earned income. They were coerced into the 10% agreement.
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What would’ve happened if they hadn’t paid it? At our parish, we give what we can afford. Giving is voluntary not forced.
 
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Gorgias said:
So… your hyperbole is reasonable, but my hyperbole isn’t. Riiiiiiight. Got it. :roll_eyes:
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I’m sorry you think I’m being dishonest. That was a real assignment in his book.
lilypadrees said:
What would’ve happened if they hadn’t paid it? At our parish, we give what we can afford. Giving is voluntary not forced.
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This sounds so much more reasonable. There’s something unnerving about the Sacraments coming with a dollar amount attached.
 
The church my daughter attended while a Mormon had various procedures for dealing with people who did not do what was expected. There was informal disciplinary action and formal disciplinary action. Under informal disciplinary action non-tithers were not allowed into the Mormon temple. (There was a difference between church and temple. The temple is not open to just anybody.) They had a lot of different laws.

My daughter did not remain in the Mormon religion for very long.
 
So even if someone’s income was say, at poverty level, they were still expected to contribute 10% no matter what? 😱 If it’d been me and they decided they had to see my income for their records, I’d have refused to show them anything and would’ve been so incensed by this invasion of privacy that I wouldn’t have given them any part of my income. And they could just inflict their various disciplinary actions on me. 😡

One shouldn’t be forced into giving anything. Giving should be done without coercion and whatever the person can afford. And if they can’t spare anything, they shouldn’t be disciplined for it.

Thanks be to God your daughter and her family got out of there.
 
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