Expanding Catholic Education Opportunities: New Paradigm Needed

[dts]

I am looking for creative ideas to expand the universe of Catholic educational opportunities (K-12) so that Catholic education is more widely available to faithful parents.

**Homeschooling ** is a great option for some parents. However, it is not open to many parents for a variety of reasons. Some parents are simply incapable of home educating. Other parents can’t make it work economically. Some parents encounter daycare type problems etc. . . .

**Public Schools ** have the benefit of being free and widely available. However, they are often hostile to the Christian faith on a practical level and they are inherently hostile to the Christian faith as a matter of law under current Supreme Court precedent.

**Catholic Schools ** are a good option for some parents. However, the big downside here is availability and costs. Additionally, the quality of the schools vary.

Each of the options above has strengths and weakness. Thinking outside of the box, what other options should be available to faithful Catholic parents? What kinds of system(s) would make it possible for the overwhelming majority of Catholic parents to place their children in a faithful and acedemically high quality educational environment?

 

[The_Hidden_Life]

Well, I don’t have the holy grail answer you are looking for, but I can tell you what we are doing this upcoming school year. We have homeschooled for the last two years, very loosely, as our oldest daughter is only 6! But I did teach her to read, among other things, so we did accomplish something. However, we moved to a new area where we knew very few people and it is a small town compared to where we lived before. So we enrolled her in public school for the last six weeks of the year.

While there are some issues we want addressed by the school, we are in general satisfied with this arrangement, so long as we continue to supplement her education as before. We will have about an hour of religious study or activities before school and about an hour of English and Math work after school. (She is above grade level in those subjects and the school does not provide an accelerated program until 3rd grade.)
I cannot tell you what kind of inner torment I have put myself through trying to decide what is the “right” way to educate our children. All the families I admire homeschool, but for our family, we decided that my being on top of the domestic duties benefited more of the family rather than sacrificing meals and cleanliness for education. I am just not organized or energized enough at this point to accomplish both!

I decided that there is nothing inherently immoral about public schooling. It does depend on your local school though. The one we have is very safe, the children are well-behaved, and the curriculum so far is non-offensive. We’ll see how that changes past the elementary years…

Should faithful Catholics never send their children to public school? Is that the message we want to send to our communities? However, I would be interested in starting a “cottage school” with other Catholic parents. Maybe this is the kind of answer you are looking for.

Cottage schools are parent-run usually. I envision a co-op either taught by parents or paid tutors. Legally it would be homeschooling, but in practice it would be a mini-private school but without the red tape.

Why isn’t Catholic schooling on my list? There isn’t one within 20 minutes of my home that I know of, and definitely not any associated with either parish I attend. Besides that, there’s the money, of course. With three children now and possibly more in the future, who can afford $300-$400 per child per month for tuition? Not us.

Interesting topic. Thank you for bringing it up!