Fees for religious education?

[PatriceA]

There is no retreat involved this is just the cost for all ages preschool on up. In order to sign your kids up you have to attend a meeting about paying this kind of money…it goes toward matierals electricity custodians ect…

Well if they are giving you a break down of what the fees are covering, it sounds to me that your parish has legitimate reasons to charge the fees that they do.

My parish priest is very forthcoming with our parish expenses and how those expenses are being met through the collections and other fundraising events. I have a much greater appreciation for the decisions the parish sometimes needs to make to continue to be a thriving parish. Sometimes you have to ask the parishoners to give a little more, pay a higher fee for things, which I gladly do as long as my parish continues to remain open. There are too many parishes lately around my area that have had to close or merge with other parishes to continue to operate because they just couldn’t meet their financial obligations.

And most parishes offer scholarships for families that can not afford the fees for CCD, or RE, depending upon what your particular parish calls it. Have you inquired about that in your parish?

 

[Corki]

There is no retreat involved this is just the cost for all ages preschool on up. In order to sign your kids up you have to attend a meeting about paying this kind of money…it goes toward matierals electricity custodians ect…

I have to admit that’s kind of steep, even if it’s intended to fully fund the operations expense related to religious ed. How much electricity can a kid use going to class for an hour a week? The teachers may be volunteers but there is undoubtedly paid staff. Our diocese, for example, requires that the DRE is a salaried position.

That being said, parish religious ed was originally designed for families that could not, for whatever reason, send their kids to Catholic school. So, compared to Catholic school, it’s still a bargain.

We used to charge a nominal fee, $10 per child. Even then, we would waive the fee for anyone with a financial hardship. Every year, about a third of the kids were covered by the parish. We raised it a few years back to $25/student. Not only have the cost of the textbooks/workbooks gone up but we found that when parents paid so little, they didn’t really take it seriously. With a higher fee, they are more likely to want to get their money’s worth and bring their kids more regularly to class.

 

[Carlan]

I have to admit that’s kind of steep, even if it’s intended to fully fund the operations expense related to religious ed. How much electricity can a kid use going to class for an hour a week? The teachers may be volunteers but there is undoubtedly paid staff. Our diocese, for example, requires that the DRE is a salaried position.

That being said, parish religious ed was originally designed for families that could not, for whatever reason, send their kids to Catholic school. So, compared to Catholic school, it’s still a bargain.

We used to charge a nominal fee, $10 per child. Even then, we would waive the fee for anyone with a financial hardship. Every year, about a third of the kids were covered by the parish. We raised it a few years back to $25/student. Not only have the cost of the textbooks/workbooks gone up but we found that when parents paid so little, they didn’t really take it seriously. With a higher fee, they are more likely to want to get their money’s worth and bring their kids more regularly to class.

Oh for heaven sakes, Corki. Of course Catholic parents are responsible for their children’s religious education but so is the Church. Parents are not asking the volunteer teachers or the parish to pay for books and material, If there is a complaint about cost of using the building how about hitting up the social activity’s use of the premises and other less important use than catechizing our children.

 

[PatriceA]

Oh for heaven sakes, Corki. Of course Catholic parents are responsible for their children’s religious education but so is the Church. Parents are not asking the volunteer teachers or the parish to pay for books and material, If there is a complaint about cost of using the building how about hitting up the social activity’s use of the premises and other less important use than catechizing our children.

What if the parish already relies on the fees for use of the buildings for social activities? What if the parish has applied every single bit of income they can think of to cover their expenses and it STILL doesn’t meet their obligations?

Corki has a point, people will think something is important or worth their time if they must pay for it. She’s only pointing out human nature and what motivates some Catholics to get their children to RE.

 

[Corki]

Oh for heaven sakes, Corki. Of course Catholic parents are responsible for their children’s religious education but so is the Church. Parents are not asking the volunteer teachers or the parish to pay for books and material, If there is a complaint about cost of using the building how about hitting up the social activity’s use of the premises and other less important use than catechizing our children.

I am not sure what you are trying to say. The religious education of the children is first, foremost and primarily the parents’ responsibility. The parish helps them to do that but it isn’t the parishioners responsibilty to fund it. Parents (not the parish) have a responsibilty to provide appropriate religious education for their children. Sending your kids to parish-based class is just one way to do that. It would be perfectly legitimate (and tried locally) for a parish, for example, to sell parents the materials and tell them to homeschool religion class. I doubt many would actually follow through but it could be done.

As for the “social activity’s use”, we don’t use our CCE classrooms for any other purpose but class. Our hall is used for our parish fundraising events and for luncheons after funerals. Are you suggesting that the families of people having funerals be charged to offset the cost of religious education?

 

[Carlan]

What if the parish already relies on the fees for use of the buildings for social activities? What if the parish has applied every single bit of income they can think of to cover their expenses and it STILL doesn’t meet their obligations?

Corki has a point, people will think something is important or worth their time if they must pay for it. She’s only pointing out human nature and what motivates some Catholics to get their children to RE.

Perhaps the Parish family, as a whole, should be encouraged more the give more to the weekly collection. After all are not our children our Churches most valuable future recourses. Peace, Carlan

 

[dconklin]

Yeah this is a sore subject for me. My parish charges $350. per kid plus a $40.00 reg fee per kid…I have four kids

WOW! I am the Ast DRE at a big parish. We charge $75 per child with a “Good Catholic Family” max of $200 per family. We do not charge a registration fees. Our fees are typical for our diocese. We do allow families to pay a need-based reduced fee or no fee, but we strongly encourage one of the parents to volunteer at Faith Formation or around the parish. There is no separate fee for sacraments, though we do charge for both of our Confirmation retreats. We are in a predominately well to do area, so we rarely get any feedback that fees are too high. We will serve about 1800 kids this year. We offer FF five different times a week and have a very full-time staff of three.

We also charge for VBS (it’s a Southern thing) while most of the neighboring churches (not Catholic) do not charge. Someone from our tithing committee approached me at a meeting this week and wondered if we should do the same.

 

[PatriceA]

Perhaps the Parish family, as a whole, should be encouraged more the give more to the weekly collection. After all are not our children our Churches most valuable future recourses. Peace, Carlan

Believe me, my parish priest does that at least once a month, if not more. Its a sad fact though that a majority of Catholics either can’t give more with today’s economy, or won’t for whatever reason. You can’t just dismiss what is happening in a lot of parishes just by saying that the parish should be encouraged to give more. Its a reality that a lot of parishes will close due to financial reasons.

 

[Corki]

WOW! I am the Ast DRE at a big parish. We charge $75 per child with a “Good Catholic Family” max of $200 per family. We do not charge a registration fees. Our fees are typical for our diocese. We do allow families to pay a need-based reduced fee or no fee, but we strongly encourage one of the parents to volunteer at Faith Formation or around the parish. There is no separate fee for sacraments, though we do charge for both of our Confirmation retreats. We are in a predominately well to do area, so we rarely get any feedback that fees are too high. We will serve about 1800 kids this year. We offer FF five different times a week and have a very full-time staff of three.

That sounds pretty typical for our diocese too. $50-$75 is usually the max I have heard around here (per student) but I know one parish that charges $100 for Sacrament years (including the retreats). We charge much less but we are in a very poor area of the diocese. We don’t have many of the bells and whistles either - some of our classes don’t even have walls.

We subsidize fully or partially many of the families. I think it topped out at about a third a few years back. We are considering a volunteer requirement for families who have fees waived. The local schools do that and it seems to work well.

 

[puzzleannie]

Ye…I havent put my kids in this year and plan on doing this on my own.

this of course is the ideal, next to Catholic school, but for those parents who come to their parish for help with RE, we have CCD-RE-PSR or whatever it is called in your area. It is part of the parish mission and all parishioners should share responsibility for supporting the program, most importantly through direct involvement as a catechist or in another capacity, financially of course as they are able, and ALL should be praying for the children, families and teachers.

that being said, parents and parishioners who are not satisfied with RE in their parish and do not become involved share responsibility for the lack in that area. there, that is twice I have said it today. now I will shuddup.

 

[puzzleannie]

Believe me, my parish priest does that at least once a month, if not more. Its a sad fact though that a majority of Catholics either can’t give more with today’s economy, or won’t for whatever reason. You can’t just dismiss what is happening in a lot of parishes just by saying that the parish should be encouraged to give more. Its a reality that a lot of parishes will close due to financial reasons.

this is undoubtedly true for many families and many parishes still the fact remain that most Protestant congregations in these areas made up of people in comparable financial situations provide children’s and youth programming at no charge, because their members tithe.