Why does Catholic school cost so much?

[gborked]

Seriously…K - 12 Catholic education costs way too much. In my large Texas city, the Catholic schools all seem to be around $6,500 or more per year. There seems to be a disconnect between what parishes practice and what they preach.

Catholic education is essentially unattainable for families who, faithful to Catholic teaching, avoided living in sin and married young, were prayerfully open to life and thereby had multiple children, and live on a single income, since one parent stays at home to care for young children. Unless the working parent has a very substantial, very reliable income, they won’t be able to send their kids to Catholic school. Why make Catholic education unattainable for families who practice what the Church teaches? Why the disconnect?

/end rant

 

[joclucsylv]

I wish I had the choice to send my kids to Catholic school. The nearest one is 3 hrs away.

 

[Luna_Lovecraft]

Catholic education is essentially unattainable for families who, faithful to Catholic teaching, avoided living in sin and married young, were prayerfully open to life and thereby had multiple children, and live on a single income, since one parent stays at home to care for young children.

Point me in the direction of where the Church teaches that we must marry young, have multiple children, and live on one income.

Luna

 

[TheRealJuliane]

Seriously…K - 12 Catholic education costs way too much. In my large Texas city, the Catholic schools all seem to be around $6,500 or more per year. There seems to be a disconnect between what parishes practice and what they preach.

Catholic education is essentially unattainable for families who, faithful to Catholic teaching, avoided living in sin and married young, were prayerfully open to life and thereby had multiple children, and live on a single income, since one parent stays at home to care for young children. Unless the working parent has a very substantial, very reliable income, they won’t be able to send their kids to Catholic school. Why make Catholic education unattainable for families who practice what the Church teaches? Why the disconnect?

/end rant

Every Catholic school has financial aid available. And every one that I’ve checked into also has a discount for more than one child. I know it’s more expensive than it used to be, when nuns basically taught all the classes, but it can still be done. It may take sacrifice of some of what the culture tells us is essential, but it can be done. Ask about financial aid, and/or academic scholarships.

p.s. When your kids get to high school, you will be

:bigyikes:

and you will fondly remember the elementary and middle school years.

 

[gborked]

Point me in the direction of where the Church teaches that we must marry young, have multiple children, and live on one income.

Luna

Obviously, it doesn’t. But it does teach that we should not have premarital sex, that married couples should be prayerfully open to life and not use artificial birth control, and that parents have a serious obligation to provide for the well being and education of their children, mind, body and and soul. Traditionally, in practice, this resulted in many (not all, obviously) practicing Catholics marrying young and having multiple kids. Today, unless such families have a substantial income (usually this means either one parent makes a lot, or both parents have to leave their children and work), they probably won’t be able to send their children to Catholic school.

 

[EasterJoy]

You do realize that people with nothing sometimes ask why the Church spends so much on schools and so little on those who need the basic necessities? The Church has a lot of work to do that takes money.

I served on the strategic planning committee for a private non-Catholic school. There probably is not a Catholic school out there that charges parents what it actually costs to educate each child at the school. There are very few that do not offer need-based scholarships.

Having said that, the teachers have to eat, too, and it is not atypical for the teachers at Catholic schools to take a pay cut compared to their colleagues in public and non-Catholic private schools. Even at that, K-12 teachers have a hard time making enough money to send their own children to college to follow in their footsteps.

The difference between tuition and actual costs has to be made up by fundraising by the parish and the diocese, fundraising that competes with all the other things the Church does. If the parish or dioces has a large enough contingent of parents who can “pay the freight,” fundraising for the schools can take a back seat to fundraising for the poor and other works of the church.

That’s some of why.

 

[Schieffelin]

It is unfortunate, but good things do not come free. We probably won’t be able to afford it when we have kids and I can’t stomach public school after how that turned out for my brothers. Therefore, I foresee homeschooling in my future even though I don’t really want to do it. Half of those “Catholic” schools aren’t really that good anyway.

 

[MaryHelene]

The Catholic school our kids attend is about 5K a year. I think that is reasonable for the vast majority of families with some creative budgeting, prayerful planning and sacrifice. I am not sure how inexpensive you want a Catholic education to be.

My daughter’s class has 24 students, each paying about 5K a year in tuition (some are on partial scholarships, though.) That’s less than $120,000 for the whole school year. I assume the teacher is making about 40K a year, and the aide about 25K. They also pay their portion for a part time music teacher and PE instructor. Then there are classroom materials and supplies and the electric, gas and water bills. Then there is the housekeeping staff. There are insurance policies. Continuing education for the teachers. The salaries for the staff and administration. Payment for grounds maintenance and play yard upkeep. Building repairs. At the end of the day, there is not much left over.

What do you feel is a fair price for a year of Catholic education?

 

[gborked]

Every Catholic school has financial aid available. And every one that I’ve checked into also has a discount for more than one child. I know it’s more expensive than it used to be, when nuns basically taught all the classes, but it can still be done. It may take sacrifice of some of what the culture tells us is essential, but it can be done. Ask about financial aid, and/or academic scholarships.

p.s. When your kids get to high school, you will be

:bigyikes:

and you will fondly remember the elementary and middle school years.

I know about financial aid and multiple kid discounts. That is one consolation. And, thankfully, in our case, we will be able to make ends meet this year for our little ones. This is more just a general observation. Maybe it’s unrealistic for me to think that families shouldn’t have to so heavily weigh being priced out of their parish school when making family planning decisions.

 

[EasterJoy]

Obviously, it doesn’t. But it does teach that we should not have premarital sex, that married couples should be prayerfully open to life and not use artificial birth control, and that parents have a serious obligation to provide for the well being and education of their children, mind, body and and soul. Traditionally, in practice, this resulted in many (not all, obviously) practicing Catholics marrying young and having multiple kids. Today, unless such families have a substantial income (usually this means either one parent makes a lot, or both parents have to leave their children and work), they probably won’t be able to send their children to Catholic school.

I think this is one big reason why there are so many Catholic home-schoolers: people in your situation do not feel they have other equally satisfactory options.

According to canon law, the Church does have a special role in the education of baptised children and has a right and duty to provide educational assistance to parents. Typically, though, the Church’s duty to educate children is taken to mean that if a parish school is not made available, religious catechesis of the children not able to attend a Catholic school is to be provided by their parish, instead.

 

[gborked]

You do realize that people with nothing sometimes ask why the Church spends so much on schools and so little on those who need the basic necessities? The Church has a lot of work to do that takes money.

I served on the strategic planning committee for a private non-Catholic school. There probably is not a Catholic school out there that charges parents what it actually costs to educate each child at the school. There are very few that do not offer need-based scholarships.

Having said that, the teachers have to eat, too, and it is not atypical for the teachers at Catholic schools to take a pay cut compared to their colleagues in public and non-Catholic private schools. Even at that, K-12 teachers have a hard time making enough money to send their own children to college to follow in their footsteps.

The difference between tuition and actual costs has to be made up by fundraising by the parish and the diocese, fundraising that competes with all the other things the Church does. If the parish or dioces has a large enough contingent of parents who can “pay the freight,” fundraising for the schools can take a back seat to fundraising for the poor and other works of the church.

That’s some of why.

Good points. Thanks for the reply. I shouldn’t gripe.

 

[1ke]

Seriously…K - 12 Catholic education costs way too much. In my large Texas city, the Catholic schools all seem to be around $6,500 or more per year.

So, how much do you think it should cost to send your kids to private school?

How do you suggest the parish pay for the staff and all the associated costs of the school? Do you know what the parish school annual budget is? Do you know what % of cost is allocated to tuition and what comes from grants, fundraising, and other sources?

There seems to be a disconnect between what parishes practice and what they preach.

What makes you say so? What is the disconnect?

 

[SamH]

Why does Catholic school cost so much?

Because it’s worth it.

Ten years ago the church I was going to announced they would BEGIN CHARGING a base admission fee for children to attend the Catholic school. The fee was about $200, and parents went ballistic that they would have to pay such an outrageous amount when it had always been free before. Now the annual fee is about $1000 and parents till complain about how high it is - but the school is still full of students.

 

[StJudePray4Me]

As I understand it, the two biggest cost for schools is the salaries and health insurance for teachers.

Tuition at our school doesn’t even cover those 2 expenses. Then add in all the overhead costs, supplies, heat, electricity, etc.

Our tuition is just about $5K for 2 kids. And we fundraise a ton…but we are still operating on a shoestring budget.

Trust me, the schools are Not making a profit. Not even close.

 

[SummerSmiles]

Others have made some good points regarding all of the costs involved in running a school, so I won’t list all of them here again. I just want to say that I understand the frustration that it can cause.

This year, we’re looking into the local Catholic school for my son, who will be in kindergarten. The school in my area doesn’t cost as much as I expected, but it’s still quite a chunk of change. The school offers a minimal discount for having multiple children in the school, so we will effectively be doubling the tuition we have to pay in another year when DD starts school. It’s daunting. DH and I just started looking at our budget, and I’m not sure we’ll be in a position to be able to afford it, even this upcoming year with only one child. We’re still weighing the pros and cons.

We’re fortunate to live in an area that has an excellent public school system that DH and I both went through during our high school years. There are many families in the parish who send their kids through the public schools and have been very pleased with the results. DH and I plan to spend much of our home time teaching our kids about the Catholic faith, so we don’t particularly feel like our kids would be missing out on much by attending the public school here.

 

[tafan]

Rant is very justified. The church tells us in canon law we are supposed to send our kids to schools that provide a Catholic education, and then does not hold up its end of the bargain by supplying schools which are truly Catholic and affordable. The former issue has greatly improved in most parishes, the latter gets worse and worse.

 

[Aelred_Minor]

In many dioceses there is a limit on how much a parish may contribute to its school. I know a parish that for years disobediently contributed more to its school than was allowed and in this way the school became one of the best Catholic schools in the region, quality and affordable, but obviously this disobedience was not right and has since been corrected, though the recent budget cuts and tuition increases are, I imagine, related to this cutback. And I hear the diocese may soon reduce the amount of funding a parish can give even more.

On the other hand there are such things as scholarships for parochial schools, and poorer families are often quietly given special reductions in the tuition.

 

[Em_in_FL]

Rant is very justified. The church tells us in canon law we are supposed to send our kids to schools that provide a Catholic education, and then does not hold up its end of the bargain by supplying schools which are truly Catholic and affordable. The former issue has greatly improved in most parishes, the latter gets worse and worse.

The affordability issue is intertwined with the fact that most Catholic Schools do not have “free” teachers anymore… with the nuns of yester-year…

You can’t just blame the church for not “holding up it’s end of the bargain” if the floor falls out from under their feet, right?

It’s a complicated issue, indeed.

 

[losh14]

Education is expensive, especially when many of the state laws regarding education are written with public schools and taxpayer-funding in mind. Catholic education has been, in my experience, excellent, on par with all the top public schools. I went to one, a Blue Ribbon school, and it was only able to be such because of ridiculous property tax base - my parents seriously pay nearly $9,000 annually in property taxes, and their house is modest in comparison with the neighborhood. This is how my public high school, one of the top 200 in the nation, could afford teachers whose graduate degrees were from Ivy league schools and the median salary was nearly $80k. My public high school regularly placed a dozen graduates in the Ivies (out of ~700 in each class), and something like 80% went to college. So when I look at the cost of Catholic education, I think it’s probably an accurate reflection of the cost of unsubsidized, high-quality education.

If you think it’s difficult for Catholic schools, you should see what hoops the non-Catholic Christian schools have to jump through when they don’t have the resources of the diocese.

Our parish closed their grade school due to declining enrollment years ago and leases the building to a Christian school. That Christian school is constantly struggling financially, to the point that the parish has had a number of debates over whether to discontinue the lease. In charity, we’ve continued it, though the school has asked that we decrease the leasing period. The first lease was for three years, at the end of which they were 6 months behind on rent. We allowed them to renew for one year, and waited another 6 months for a single payment. After that, they said they’d only want to renew on a semester basis. We continue to work with them and have postponed repairs to the gym and HVAC as much as we could while maintaining safety because the cash flow hasn’t been there.

It’s not that the folks running the Christian school are lazy - they’re quite diligent, but just can’t keep up financially. Each child is expected to fundraise and is committed to raising x amount. Parents can buy their way out of fundraising, but last year they were asked to buy out twice in the first semester. Some students left over this. Pre- and post-care costs have gone up. With all things going on, most of us doubt that the school will be open next year - renewal forms go out by the end of the month, so we’ll know by June if the school will remain viable.

To make it more interesting, we sent our first child to day care when she was an infant with one of the parents whose children went to the school. Once we found that out her children went to the school that our parish was basically keeping on life support, it made things quite uncomfortable - and the day care provider had no qualms sharing with us the difficulties that the Christian school’s tuition and fundraising had on their finances. Our kids are now in a Catholic preschool - an excellent one, mind you, where both of them are very well taken-care of and come home happy every day.

Tuition for the two of them is also more than twice our mortgage, good thing we bought the house based on much lower incomes at the time. I should mention that the pre-school is not financially supported by the parish, probably because the parish doesn’t have enough families to justify subsidizing the preschool (though it subsidizes the grade school), other than using a parish building without rent. But I’d rather take a second job - or go down to one income - than send our kids to one of the unlicensed in-home day cares around here, or to Kindercare. We’re able to afford it so that’s what we’ll provide.

 

[Iron_Donkey]

My daughter’s class has 24 students, each paying about 5K a year in tuition (some are on partial scholarships, though.) That’s less than $120,000 for the whole school year. I assume the teacher is making about 40K a year, and the aide about 25K. They also pay their portion for a part time music teacher and PE instructor. Then there are classroom materials and supplies and the electric, gas and water bills. Then there is the housekeeping staff. There are insurance policies. Continuing education for the teachers. The salaries for the staff and administration. Payment for grounds maintenance and play yard upkeep. Building repairs. At the end of the day, there is not much left over.

This. Unfortunately, stuff costs money, which has to come from somewhere. I also recommend asking about scholarships though, most parishes understand that some people have more money than others.