How to afford Catholic High School with 5 kids?

[ThePCWife]

As to the OP dilemma, Protestant day schools, including fairly rigorous ones with classical curricula are more likely to have bulk discounts past three kids, so you might consider that route if there’s just no way to pay for Catholic high school in your area and you want rigorous academics. You can use the savings to get more intensive Catholic catechism and religious education for the kids outside of school. Also, the Protestant schools are more likely to offer an a la carte menu where you can have the kids take just some academic classes part-time at a cheap hourly rate and you homeschool or get a tutor for the rest.

 

[pianistclare]

This is a semi-myth. Adults have more vocabulary to learn, so it appears harder, but they just have more work to do than what constitutes fluency for a six year old. Adults can easily gain that much fluency in many foreign languages.

Mandatory and immersion programs in public school settings are not clearly shown to improve fluency in the foreign language, and if the language is Spanish, there is not much of a premium in the workplace for being bilingual.

Oh really? Corporations around here are seeking upper management fluent in Spanishbut that’s another thread.
Language is always a plus.

 

[AClaire11]

What’s your objection to the dual languages? Children readily learn a second language in early childhood. MUCH harder later in life, and bi-lingual people are highly sought in the workplace.

Don’t want to derail the thread, but the program was only started because there are many migrants in the area with children who cannot speak English and so this was an attempt to boost abysmal test scores. It hasn’t worked. Aside from not wanting her to have to learn math and science in a language no one in our family can speak and then have to switch back to English in middle school anyway, the school is just really bad in general and I do not feel comfortable sending her there. The dual immersion itself is not the main reason. If the school were ranked 7/10 or higher and the resources not openly devoted almost exclusively to a demographic we are not part of, it would be a different story.

 

[Irishmom2]

As to the OP dilemma, Protestant day schools, including fairly rigorous ones with classical curricula are more likely to have bulk discounts past three kids, so you might consider that route if there’s just no way to pay for Catholic high school in your area and you want rigorous academics. You can use the savings to get more intensive Catholic catechism and religious education for the kids outside of school. Also, the Protestant schools are more likely to offer an a la carte menu where you can have the kids take just some academic classes part-time at a cheap hourly rate and you homeschool or get a tutor for the rest.

The problem is, that the OP wants to have her children attend Catholic school, not Protestant school. No offense, but people often send their children to Catholic school for the religious aspect, so a Protestant school would not work.

 

[misspriss]

We can’t even afford the grade school tuition in our area for one kid. We’ll be homeschooling because the elementary school is poorly rated and has mandatory dual language immersion, and the elementary school we would likely get transferred to if we requested a transfer is a failing school. So unless we move somewhere where we can afford a decent school district, we will be homeschooling.

Every family is different, but if your wife is only working 2 days to pay for tuition, homeschooling might be the way to go. If it will work for you. I agree with the previous poster that you should not spend the money for private school for only one child. I know a family that is only paying for the boys’ college tuition because “boys need to go to college more than girls do.” I was completely blown away by this attitude. My friend almost had to drop out because they were saving the money for her brothers and she had a hard time finding a job to supplement her scholarships. Outrageous.

Same here, can’t afford elementary for one child, let alone the 3 we will have one day. We are homeschooling.

 

[misspriss]

This is a semi-myth. Adults have more vocabulary to learn, so it appears harder, but they just have more work to do than what constitutes fluency for a six year old. Adults can easily gain that much fluency in many foreign languages.

Mandatory and immersion programs in public school settings are not clearly shown to improve fluency in the foreign language, and if the language is Spanish, there is not much of a premium in the workplace for being bilingual.

I have heard that children who learn a secondary language at the same time as their primary language, before the age of 3, learn the secondary language well. The language is actually stored in the same area of the brain as their primary language. Where children who learn a secondary language at a later age (still young, 4-5+) and adults store their secondary language in a different part of the brain than their primary. I don’t remember the details, but I always wanted to expose my children to a secondary language when they were young…I guess that ship has already sailed though!

I did not learn a foreign language until high school, it didn’t stick

 

[UbiCaritas]

This is a semi-myth. Adults have more vocabulary to learn, so it appears harder, but they just have more work to do than what constitutes fluency for a six year old. Adults can easily gain that much fluency in many foreign languages.

Mandatory and immersion programs in public school settings are not clearly shown to improve fluency in the foreign language, and if the language is Spanish,** there is not much of a premium in the workplace for being bilingual**.

scratches head

Perhaps this is a regional difference (I’m in Texas), but I’m trying to think of a field in which being bilingual doesn’t give a person a huge advantage in the job market. Medicine, education, any field involving customer service, the trades, construction…all those areas here consider being able to speak Spanish a huge, huge plus. Perhaps upper-tier corporate America…? Even so, though, no one there will think the worse of you for being fluent in another language.

ETA: I have heard some nightmare stories about awful dual-immersion programs, so there is that issue, but I wouldn’t dismiss the acquisition of another language, especially one as commonly spoken as Spanish, as being unhelpful.

 

[misspriss]

scratches head

Perhaps this is a regional difference (I’m in Texas), but I’m trying to think of a field in which being bilingual doesn’t give a person a huge advantage in the job market. Medicine, education, any field involving customer service, the trades, construction…all those areas here consider being able to speak Spanish a huge, huge plus. Perhaps upper-tier corporate America…? Even so, though, no one there will think the worse of you for being fluent in another language.

ETA: I have heard some nightmare stories about awful dual-immersion programs, so there is that issue, but I wouldn’t dismiss the acquisition of another language, especially one as commonly spoken as Spanish, as being unhelpful.

Being in Arkansas, there is not quite the same demand for Spanish language speakers, but it is not that far off from Texas. I talked about this with my sister (who is conversational in Spanish but not fluent). I have an accounting degree. I could see no instance in which being bilingual would help me in almost any job, except being a low tier tax preparer, which are usually people without degrees. My sister’s experience is in retail, fast food, and emergency medicine. Spanish, at least a working knowledge, is extremely helpful to her.

There are tons of people who don’t work with the public who it wouldn’t help, my husband also does accounting, my dad was an engineer with the regulated storage tank division of the department of environmental quality, None of these jobs would be helped by a second language. My younger sister is in athletic training. It’s shocking how many of the college athletes at our little public college who are not from the US and speak very little English, but they don’t speak Spanish either.

I would not consider what I did, what my husband does, or what my dad did as “upper tier corporate” - I worked for the state and for a non-profit, just accounting staff jobs, etc.

 

[ThePCWife]

The problem is, that the OP wants to have her children attend Catholic school, not Protestant school. No offense, but people often send their children to Catholic school for the religious aspect, so a Protestant school would not work.

That’s why I mentioned that many Protestant private schools offer individual classes for those who have other religious instruction they want to give their children but who still want academic rigor too. And why I also mentioned (if you’d read my comment at all) that Catholic-specific religious instruction outside of school would have to be done if going with a Protestant private school strictly for the lower cost and academic content.

The entire point of this thread is that Catholic high school specifically is prohibitively expensive for 4-5 kids where the OP lives. I was laying out alternatives that weren’t homeschool-exclusively, since generally those I know with that many kids who homeschool for a specific (often Catholic) religious end use tutors, co-ops and domestic help (relatives or paid) in various combinations. And those alternatives are certainly available too, but usually involve more legwork vs. taking a few math/chemistry/etc. classes at a gasp Protestant day school for a 1 or 2k a month for all the kids and having mom homeschool two or three days a week for religious and other coursework.

 

[ThePCWife]

scratches head

Perhaps this is a regional difference (I’m in Texas), but I’m trying to think of a field in which being bilingual doesn’t give a person a huge advantage in the job market. Medicine, education, any field involving customer service, the trades, construction…all those areas here consider being able to speak Spanish a huge, huge plus. Perhaps upper-tier corporate America…? Even so, though, no one there will think the worse of you for being fluent in another language.

ETA: I have heard some nightmare stories about awful dual-immersion programs, so there is that issue, but I wouldn’t dismiss the acquisition of another language, especially one as commonly spoken as Spanish, as being unhelpful.

I said the premium isn’t large. It’s a couple bucks an hour, maybe a few k for salaried positions. At least for Spanish, as there’s no shortage of that specific kind of bilingual. As for other languages, it varies a lot. In some cases it’s pretty good, but there’s not much work in America for such dual-language-havers. In other cases the language has no business use. It’s pretty variable.

 

[PaulfromIowa]

OP, if it came down to Mom having to take a job just to pay Catholic school tuition, I would think that Catholic homeschooling would be the better option for the kids.

 

[mommy_k]

I said the premium isn’t large. It’s a couple bucks an hour, maybe a few k for salaried positions. At least for Spanish, as there’s no shortage of that specific kind of bilingual. As for other languages, it varies a lot. In some cases it’s pretty good, but there’s not much work in America for such dual-language-havers. In other cases the language has no business use. It’s pretty variable.

Perhaps in an hourly rate job, not near a major city:shrug:
Business is global these days, though.

Upper tier jobs in America desire 2 languages, and Spanish is the 2nd most spoken language globally in the business sector.
This is why they offer Spanish class. Being bilingual gives the prospective candidates an edge to deal with clients in business and the other high tier jobs listed above.

 

[mommy_k]

OP, if it came down to Mom having to take a job just to pay Catholic school tuition, I would think that Catholic homeschooling would be the better option for the kids.

Yes, the choice to go back to work was difficult for me. However, not everyone is cut out to be a homeschool parent.

I don’t work full time, but also did not have more then 2 in catholic high school at the same time. The benefit here is that there were choices of schools, some give sibling discount, some offer voluntee
r positions to help offset tuition. We chose this route not only for the faith aspect, but also because thier elementary school was so tiny that they may have not thrived academically in a large public school.

I would not send my children to catholic school if I could not be home for the children when they are. I agree that of you have a,solid foundation in place for them regarding fsith, if there are activities to connect and grow in the faith in your parish then I would opt for the public school. Your wife can volunteer and be present at the high school and observe the first year there too, and see how it goes. You can always change schools.

Imho, there is no replacing a mother being at home for the children. I would also caution about going into too much debt or too many changes. College is around the corner and it’s expensive. The 4 years of high school fly by…

 

[Truth_Faith13]

Anyone else here have 4-5 children and put them through Catholic High School? How in the world did you do it? Was it worth having to have both parents work to afford it?

Our oldest daughter is in 8th grade now, and will be a Freshman next year. We have 5 kids, with 4 of them in Catholic Grade School Now. Tuition for all 4 of them is $14,000 a year. It is tight, but we make it work. My wife works 2 days a week, and that certainly helps, but we never wanted her to have to work full time. We also have some unusual circumstances as we live 25-30 mins away from their current school.

Tuition for her freshman year (at the school she is looking at that most of her class is going to) would be $12,000 + almost another $1,000 for computer fee and registration. So between the two will be close to $30,000 a year…and our second will be in high school in another 2 years…

We have applied for financial scholarships, but doesn’t look like we will get any. She did not score well on her placement test, and won’t receive any academic scholarship.

Anyone else deal with the same? What did you do? I’m worried at how she would do at our public school, and we both value what she has gained at Catholic school so far.

Any (name removed by moderator)ut appreciated.

I live in the UK so slightly different and I only have 2 kids but we intend to privately educate them from 3-18. I just wanted to throw some ideas your way.

Could your wife work full time? (I’m currently a SAHM mum but will return to work to fund the schooling). What lifestyle do you live? Could you make cut backs? We pay £82.80 a month for our TV, phone and broadband and hardly watch the TV so we’ve cut the sky TV and now the bill will be £22.40 a month. My husband can work from home a couple of days a week and I don’t drive to many places anyway (our town is walkable) so we are going to sell one of the cars. It will also put £90 back into our monthly budget. We also try and put as much away into savings as possible.

You could go extreme…downsize, get a new job with more pay etc etc, but that’s when you need to balance things and prioritise.

 

[Xantippe]

Yes, the choice to go back to work was difficult for me. However, not everyone is cut out to be a homeschool parent.

I don’t work full time, but also did not have more then 2 in catholic high school at the same time. The benefit here is that there were choices of schools, some give sibling discount, some offer voluntee
r positions to help offset tuition. We chose this route not only for the faith aspect, but also because thier elementary school was so tiny that they may have not thrived academically in a large public school.

I would not send my children to catholic school if I could not be home for the children when they are. I agree that of you have a,solid foundation in place for them regarding fsith, if there are activities to connect and grow in the faith in your parish then I would opt for the public school. Your wife can volunteer and be present at the high school and observe the first year there too, and see how it goes. You can always change schools.

Imho, there is no replacing a mother being at home for the children.** I would also caution about going into too much debt or too many changes. College is around the corner and it’s expensive. The 4 years of high school fly by…**

I especially agree with the stuff I’ve bolded.

 

[UbiCaritas]

I said the premium isn’t large. It’s a couple bucks an hour, maybe a few k for salaried positions. At least for Spanish, as there’s no shortage of that specific kind of bilingual. As for other languages, it varies a lot. In some cases it’s pretty good, but there’s not much work in America for such dual-language-havers. In other cases the language has no business use. It’s pretty variable.

I see your point about areas in which Spanish may not be a plus (my work background is more like your sister’s), but I also think this may be partially a location thing. Around here, you won’t be considered for many customer service jobs if you aren’t bilingual!

 

[pianistclare]

Catholic High School here is around $11,000 per student. No discounts.
A private Catholic school runs around $18,650. (run by an Order)
The best secular private school: $19,900

The average secular or Christian private school tuition in our area is $12,005 for elementary schools and $15,965 for high schools. Acceptance rate is around 78%.

I feel like people have an unrealistic view of what it takes to educate children in these settings.

 

[mommy_k]

I see your point about areas in which Spanish may not be a plus (my work background is more like your sister’s), but I also think this may be partially a location thing. Around here, you won’t be considered for many customer service jobs if you aren’t bilingual!

Idk, if the plan is for the child is to attend college after high school would hope that they secure a position other then hourly rate job…being bilingual is an asset in the professional realm no matter where u reside.

Location has nothing to do with this, as business is conducted daily over the internet…

 

[Rico_S]

The Catholic school bubble is either too small, or too elite, in our area. YMMV.
My children got all A’s and one went to college and made all A’s. **But they still resent not going to a school with other kids like themselves: in other words, NOT RICH. **

It was a constant source of drama. They didn’t get invited to things because they didn’t have unlimited spending money, no one ever wanted to come to our house, we didn’t live in an elite area. They never went on any Senior trips. They went to school, did well, and had friends. But as soon as they stepped off the school property? Crickets.

That’s sad.

I was on the low end of the financial scale when attending high school and that was not my experience. The “catholic school bubble” has its issues, but being excluded for not being rich wasn’t one for us. Sure, there were plenty of rich kids who were spoiled and just not good people who wanted little to do with me, but that wasn’t across the board by any stretch. My kids are in a similar position as we have a humble home and are far less “spendy” than most of their peers’ families, but we have yet to feel excluded. As parents, we don’t do a lot of the school social stuff, which tends to be mostly attended by the elites, but our kids have had no problems in connecting with others…across very diverse financial situations. Our kids do occassionally feel the sting of not having things that other kids have, but that is life. It’s a good lesson to learn… and hopefully won’t be a source of resentment.

 

[Xantippe]

OP, if it came down to Mom having to take a job just to pay Catholic school tuition, I would think that Catholic homeschooling would be the better option for the kids.

There aren’t a lot of people who are up to doing high school homeschooling and doing a good job of it. It would be a very exceptional family who could do that–the average mom cannot expect to do a great job of homeschooling high schoolers–which is one of many reasons why the average mom doesn’t do it.

If there is any sort of ongoing parent-teen conflict, it’s not a good idea to have mom and teens butting heads all day long.