Values for a Lifetime

As we build our vision for Catholic Schools, one of the central issues we will focus upon is that of affordability. As expressed by the U.S. Bishops in their publication Renewing Our Commitment to Catholic Elementary and Secondary Schools in the Third Millennium, it is our sincere desire to ensure that our schools are available to all families, regardless of their economic background. This is a substantial challenge; the costs of providing a high-quality education have risen over the decades. We must support strong teachers and fill our classrooms with state-of-the-art technology offerings, textbooks, and other educational resources. With the decline in the number of religious priests, sisters, and brothers in our schools, we feel obligated to support good benefits programs to employees with families. Many of our school buildings are aging, requiring capital investments and repairs. In short, good Catholic education is expensive.

In spite of this, we have made sincere efforts to keep the costs of tuition low. In the elementary schools, a Catholic in-parish tuition tends to cost somewhere between $3,000-$5,000. Yet the actual cost per student incurred by the school is typically around $7,000. The remaining expenses are usually supplied by parish payments to the school, fund raising, and other sources.

Yet even with our concerted efforts to keep tuition relatively low, we recognize that many of our families make deep sacrifices to afford a Catholic school education. In the urban cores of Cincinnati and Dayton, programs have been established to help families with tuition costs at designated schools. These programs, which include Catholic Inner City Education (CISE) and Seeds of Growth have proven track records of success at making our schools available to lower-income families. State programs, such as the Educational Choice Vouchers, have further helped. Many schools have implemented local forms of tuition assistance. Yet in spite of these efforts, many families profess economic difficulties in affording tuition.

This issue is perhaps most pronounced among middle-income families. I recently had a conversation with a mother of five. Her husband is the sole bread-winner, and the family is dedicated to a Catholic school education. The father’s income level places them firmly in the middle class. Yet the mother is sincerely worried about whether she will be able to keep her family in their Catholic school. The family does not qualify for CISE-like aid (as their income is too high), nor do they live in a school district that qualifies for vouchers. The mother was particularly worried about high school, where tuition costs are much higher. The woman was quite distressed; she deeply desires for her children to be in a Catholic school, yet she struggles with the day-to-day reality of paying tuition for five children.

The issue of affordability is critical to our vision for the future. We must think deeply about how we can ensure that our schools can be affordable, particularly for families in the middle class. If we do not address the issue of affordability, we risk excluding many of our most faithful and dedicated families. I do not yet know the solution to this issue (although I have many ideas), but I have great hope. In the end, we all must trust in God, for through him all things are possible.