How to afford Catholic High School with 5 kids?

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We have two kids in private school with a third going to 3-day pre-k in the fall. We were doing the enrollment forms last night and (much to our dismay), it’s going to be $22k a year this coming year and then around $24k the next year (when Baby Girl hits five-day K).

I don’t think I would have signed up for this, had I known how expensive it was going to be, but when we started, Big Girl was going into K and it was only $5k for the year. Fast forward 10 years and–WHOA!

Barring exceptional circumstances (very low tuition or a generous scholarship), I think that any family with household income under $100k is going to find it tough sledding to have 2+ kids in private school.

Our particular family has an inexpensive local college option and there are only three children at this point (and even if we had another one at this point, that baby would be 5 years younger than Baby Girl), so this isn’t quite as dire a situation as it would be for a lot of other CAF families. We need to find an extra $500+ a month real soon (probably via me going back to work and cutting down on fun) and suck it up for the next 4 years (by which time, Big Girl will hopefully have a job and will be able to cover a lot of her incidental expenses). But I wouldn’t recommend that as a way of life…
 
We had a family that volunteered to keep our soccer field cut in exchange for a percentage off their tuition; perhaps there is something you or your wife can volunteer to do in the school…lunchroom, library, teacher’s assistant, maintenance, etc…?
 
Angel_Bradford said:
We had a family that volunteered to keep our soccer field cut in exchange for a percentage off their tuition; perhaps there is something you or your wife can volunteer to do in the school…lunchroom, library, teacher’s assistant, maintenance, etc…?
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Unfortunately, many (though not all) Catholic schools now require volunteering in these sorts of areas from each family in addition to the tuition, or the families get charged additional fees. :eek:

(According to local parents, this places a pretty harsh burden on a lot of families, many of whom have both parents working in order to afford Catholic school in the first place: either take time off of work–but still pay daycare fees for younger kids, who aren’t allowed to accompany the volunteer parent due to liability issues–in order to watch the lunch room/supervise recess/sort books at the library/run the PTA night/whatsit or pay another $500 in tuition.)
 
Xantippe said:
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.
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I would say that’s true if one jumped into
Homeschooling at the high school level. However, if one homeschools before high school and uses a good program it isn’t too hard. It’s a form of learning that is taught. To change in high school would be tough.
 
I am so happy that we are in the Diocese of Wichita, KS. All Catholic schooling, from K-12 is covered with an honest stewardship of time, talent, and treasure. This applies for everyone. There are stewardship parishes but we are a stewardship diocese. This has been a big factor in the decisions my wife and I have made in staying in Wichita with our kids.

I hope you are able to find a way to make your situation work for you. Catholic schooling, especially catechism when done right, are very important to me. And that is coming from a convert. 😉
 
ThePCWife said:
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.
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Um…no. If you want to work in the public sector, work any sort of social services, or go into any legal field but tax law, there is a huge premium on a second language.

And there are lots of jobs for major corporations where you won’t be considered without a second language, regardless if what it is. Being bilingual has opened several doors for me that were closed to objectively more qualified peers. My husband works in an IT/finance hybrid position and even he is taking on French because he keeps seeing opportunities for bilingual candidates, again, regardless of language.

As 4 year degrees become cheapened, so do advanced degrees, certifications, and languages. It’s become so common that employers can comfortably require it for almost any role and still be flooded with applicants, professional position or dead end minimum wage customer service job.
 
Sorry I started this argument…I agree languages are very important. I know several and plan on teaching my daughter at least one aside from English. I just take issue with the school in question, how and why they have implemented this program, etc. If we move to the next county over, which has better schools, and decide not to homeschool, I’ll definitely apply for her to attend a dual language program if the school is nearby and excellent in other areas, as well. They have French, German, Korean, Japanese, and Spanish.
 
Joshua_Shorter said:
I am so happy that we are in the Diocese of Wichita, KS. All Catholic schooling, from K-12 is covered with an honest stewardship of time, talent, and treasure. This applies for everyone. There are stewardship parishes but we are a stewardship diocese. This has been a big factor in the decisions my wife and I have made in staying in Wichita with our kids.

I hope you are able to find a way to make your situation work for you. Catholic schoolinge, especially catechism when done right, are very important to me. And that is coming from a convert. 😉
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Several places in the Midwest have phenomenal catholic schools. And they make it available to everyone. This is probably a combination of economic factors and historical religious orders.
 
Hoosier_Daddy said:
Several places in the Midwest have phenomenal catholic schools. And they make it available to everyone. This is probably a combination of economic factors and historical religious orders.
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Yup. The Midwest has always been much more family aware, and family friendly.
 
Some states have programs that have different requirements, but it is one way larger/lower-income families do it:

ncsl.org/research/education/school-choice-scholarship-tax-credits.aspx
ncsl.org/research/education/school-choice-vouchers.aspx

It is worthwhile to look into politicians’ views on these type of programs when voting, especially in primaries and local races, and there are often battles between interest groups regarding these type of programs.

Also, I have heard of places with parish subsidies or special prices for parishioners, and even a max amount of money that one family will pay (gradually less money per child, and after 4 the 5th is free).
 
How does your local public high school rank nationally? While I would love to be able to send my daughter to catholic high school, we simply couldn’t afford it, however, luckily we live in a very good public school district. Our daughter joined our parish’s youth group and was very active in catholic programs for youth. No regrets here.
 
JanetF said:
How does your local public high school rank nationally? While I would love to be able to send my daughter to catholic high school, we simply couldn’t afford it, however, luckily we live in a very good public school district. Our daughter joined our parish’s youth group and was very active in catholic programs for youth. No regrets here.
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That’s good! I guess that’s my point. Catholic education daily is a boon, but it doesn’t and is not designed to replace good old fashioned family prayer and worship.
 
OP Here,

We had a meeting with the high school today. Liked what we saw, and what they had to say. They are going to pull our financials and see if we possibly qualify for a scholarship. I’m not holding out too much hope as I am blessed to have a good job, and we don’t have credit card or car payment debt–and they mentioned it was based on your ability to pay given all of your bills including car and credit card loans(seems odd to penalize you for trying to be financially responsible).

The local school rates will with regards to scholastic, but is gigantic in terms of size. Daughter did her first 2 years there and was lost in the shuffle. They had Forty (4 0 ) first grade classes when she was there, and it has only gotten bigger. She did not do well with the large size, and fit in so much better once we switched her to the Catholic school she is in now. Since we had years of both public and Catholic school, my wife and I definitely feel that she developed better as a Catholic in the Catholic school vs when she went to public school (supplemented with CCD at the same parish) Of course YMMV, but that is what we found with her. Same with our younger daughter (she has mentioned twice that she may want to follow in some of the sisters footsteps and be a Nun).

I think we can make things stretch and cover her fist year but cutting things…without my wife having to work more. Not sure that will be the case when #2 gets to high school…so we have that to consider as well.

Unfortunately, my wife is not in any way interested in trying to home school. I would be on board (two of my siblings are doing this with very good success), but my wife is not at all interested in that…so I guess that’s the end of that discussion.

Thanks for all that replied. Say an extra prayer that they decide in our favor come scholarship decision (they said it would be a few days to review and they would have an answer).
 
barhoram said:
OP Here,

We had a meeting with the high school today. Liked what we saw, and what they had to say. They are going to pull our financials and see if we possibly qualify for a scholarship. I’m not holding out too much hope as I am blessed to have a good job, and we don’t have credit card or car payment debt–and them mentioned it was based on your ability to pay given all of your bills including car and credit card loans(seems odd to penalize you for trying to be financially responsible).

The local school rates will with regards to scholastic, but is gigantic in terms of size. Daughter did her first 2 years there and was lost in the shuffle. They had Forty (4 0 ) first grade classes when she was there, and it has only gotten bigger. She did not do well with the large size, and fit in so much better once we switched her to the Catholic school she is in now. Since we had years of both public and Catholic school, my wife and I definitely feel that she developed better as a Catholic in the Catholic school vs when she went to public school (supplemented with CCD at the same parish) Of course YMMV, but that is what we found with her. Same with our younger daughter (she has mentioned twice that she may want to follow in some of the sisters footsteps and be a Nun).

I think we can make things stretch and cover her fist year but cutting things…without my wife having to work more. Not sure that will be the case when #2 gets to high school…so we have that to consider as well.

Unfortunately, my wife is not in any way interested in trying to home school. I would be on board (two of my siblings are doing this with very good success), but my wife is not at all interested in that…so I guess that’s the end of that discussion.

Thanks for all that replied. Say an extra prayer that they decide in our favor come scholarship decision (they said it would be a few days to review and they would have an answer).
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I hope they come through for you. Please let us know the outcome, as everyone, I’m sure is praying for your situation.
 
OP here…Good New, Bad News…

Good news is is that we were offered some $$ off each year from the school as part of Financial Assistance.

Bad News…is that it is still going to be 10K a year. I can afford the tuition for the 3 (soon to be 4) other kids Grades 1-8 now…but not all of it. I ran the math, and after paying the bills, their current tuition, some savings for retirement, college and home repairs (we need new windows)…there is about 3K left from my salary. This doesn’t included anything in terms of Vacation, Christmas, Kids sports, etc…

My my wife is freaking out about having to make up the 10K and have no money left over She is MAD that she has to pick up more work. Not sure how, but this turned into a huge fight over the weekend, and now not talking to me. It’s sad to me that we weren’t able to work together to figure this out without it turning into a fight that just went off on a tangent about a million other things. Prayers needed.
 
Offer your wife the choice:

–she works more and the kids go to Catholic high school

or

–she works the same and the big kids go to public school

Have her choose.

It’s not you creating this situation–it just is miserable paying multiple private school tuitions, even with a good income.

I forget if I mentioned this in this thread, but we recently did the math, and for the coming year, our housing expenses plus 2.5 private school tuitions are going to suck up roughly 50% of our household income. Yuck. We’ve got a $600 a month deficit to make up, and as in your family, it’s going to need to be me who makes it up.
barhoram said:
OP here…Good New, Bad News…

Good news is is that we were offered some $$ off each year from the school as part of Financial Assistance.

Bad News…is that it is still going to be 10K a year. I can afford the tuition for the 3 (soon to be 4) other kids Grades 1-8 now…but not all of it. I ran the math, and after paying the bills, their current tuition, some savings for retirement, college and home repairs (we need new windows)…there is about 3K left from my salary. This doesn’t included anything in terms of Vacation, Christmas, Kids sports, etc…

My my wife is freaking out about having to make up the 10K and have no money left over She is MAD that she has to pick up more work. Not sure how, but this turned into a huge fight over the weekend, and now not talking to me. It’s sad to me that we weren’t able to work together to figure this out without it turning into a fight that just went off on a tangent about a million other things. Prayers needed.
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Thanks. That is more or less how I presented it…but she has already made the comment to one of our kids (when she didn’t buy them something ) that DAD is forcing me to pay for ALL of daughter’s high school…and she can’t afford anything anymore. At least that’s what they came away thinking. I should have let it go, but it made me very mad.

I think we both agree that if at all possible, Catholic high school is the best choice (for this particular daughter). I would rather suck it up and cut Christmas and Birthday spending (trust me, our kids get plenty already). She want’s nothing to do with that approach…is asking for more work hours, and now mad at me…because my life won’t change one bit. Her’s will…🤷

It will…it will be more picking up and dropping off kids (which I already do)…she just doesn’t think I do my share 🤷🤷
 
barhoram said:
Thanks. That is more or less how I presented it…but she has already made the comment to one of our kids (when she didn’t buy them something ) that DAD is forcing me to pay for ALL of daughter’s high school…and she can’t afford anything anymore. At least that’s what they came away thinking. I should have let it go, but it made me very mad.

I think we both agree that if at all possible, Catholic high school is the best choice (for this particular daughter). I would rather suck it up and cut Christmas and Birthday spending (trust me, our kids get plenty already). She want’s nothing to do with that approach…is asking for more work hours, and now mad at me…because my life won’t change one bit. Her’s will…🤷

It will…it will be more picking up and dropping off kids (which I already do)…she just doesn’t think I do my share 🤷🤷
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Are you factoring In the cost of marital peace? It may be more expensive than you think.
Why is it so important to put them in the catholic school?
Can you explain that?
 
It really boils down to…I think that they have a better shot at getting to heaven and being life-long Catholics than our current options at Public School + our efforts and CCD. We did that for a few years, and can tell the difference in how invested the kids were in faith given both situations. Now that is just our Public School and family situation…I’m sure it’s different for many/most families.
 
barhoram said:
It really boils down to…I think that they have a better shot at getting to heaven and being life-long Catholics than our current options at Public School + our efforts and CCD. We did that for a few years, and can tell the difference in how invested the kids were in faith given both situations. Now that is just our Public School and family situation…I’m sure it’s different for many/most families.
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You must live in a rare place.
Here. Public school and a good family faith life would do the trick.
Sadly here, catholic schools do a fair job of discouraging the faith.
Our bishop is trying to change that but it’s a hard road.
I have lived in places with schools like you must have, but how catholic can they be if they only help the privaleged and cause family strife?

I’m currious. In your diocese, where do the new priests come from?
In my experience not many saints are born of wealth. And those that are tend to shed it even at thier parents dismay.

I know more good catholic public school kids than private ones.
 
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