Education is too selective and elitist, says Pope Francis [CH-UK]

[Thomas_White]

I think the following quote by Pope Francis says a great deal:

“Education that is too focused on the tangible and ignores the spiritual dimension of existence is ‘the biggest crisis’ facing Christian eduction,” the pope said.

 

[jilly4ski]

How much?
Formation for PK-5th is 70. Edge 75, LifeTeen 100.
My old parish (where is not the DRE only charged families $25 per child, BUT…they pretty much only did crafts in class, and they had a bake sale or other fundraiser nearly every week. ANYTHING they wanted to do, they had to fundraise for. That would be awful.
People get tired of having to buy something at church every week, and I don’t blame them.

I think it is $78 per child for all grades. But, I am not certain, (we signed up in June and we didn’t have to pay since I am teaching). I don’t think we do am specific religious education fundraising, though I am sure they get a portion of the regular parish fundraisers.

At my childhood parish, they developed their own Family Formation program which they now sell, and it does quite well for itself, that probably keeps the costs down for everyone.

 

[pianistclare]

Well that would be nice.
In our parish all fundraisers have to be approved for a specific cause, and the money may not be diverted.
In our case, specifically, our pastor does not approve many fundraisers. We still owe debt on the structure of the church, so everything pours into that repayment to the Diocese.
We don’t have one single education fundraiser. We do for the Missionaries in our parish and sometimes for the food bank in terms of donations of goods, same wit prison ministries. Education is first priority and I set about asking for what I think we will spend in the coming year, and they have approved all expenditures thus far. I’m blessed in that regard. If it’s for the kids…the Finance Committee is good with it.
As I said, many people don’t bother to pay their fees and we don’t turn any family away ever.

But still, we’re talking about Faith Formation at the parish level. A FAR cry from the cost of an education in a Catholic School.

 

[jilly4ski]

Well that would be nice.

But still, we’re talking about Faith Formation at the parish level. A FAR cry from the cost of an education in a Catholic School.

Exactly. Our parish recently closed their elementary school and we opened a “regional” school, with one (or two) of the nearby parishes. We went to check it out at their first open house, since our son was going to go into kindergarten. I think tuition for the year was $5000 for kindergarten (it was more for the other grades). They probably had scholarships and stuff, but it was not advertised. As it turns out, he is probably doing better in public school, as he is getting some extra help on a few skills that were not quite at age level (fine motor/handwritting, language usage, and social skills).

I went to public school and did just fine. (I had 5 siblings and my parents couldn’t afford the closest parish school).

 

[pnewton]

School vouchers!

Texas is terrible at education. It is one of our glaring flaws. We have teachers that are overpaid and yet we refuse to cough up a dime for anyone in need to attend the school of their choice. In fact, we tax people on money they spend on educating their children. Our secular education lobby has a strangle-hold on the legislature. For the life of me, I do not understand it.

 

[ProVobis]

We have teachers that are overpaid and yet we refuse to cough up a dime for anyone in need to attend the school of their choice.

And they probably get a generous annually-adjusted pension on top of that where much of the new tax money goes. At least that’s the problem in Illinois, which has been broke for some time now.