THE SCHOOL OF HARD KNOCKS

Perhaps ten years ago or more the Atlantic Quarterly ran an article predicting the end of Catholic grade school education. They surmised that the cost of educating our young would become so great that a good Catholic education would only be available to the elite. I was appalled at the suggestion. Affordable, quality, Catholic education has been a trademark of the Church in the United States benefiting both the Church and state in innumerable ways.

In the Diocese of Cleveland it was not uncommon when a parish was founded to build the school first followed later by the church building. To this day some parishes still have mass in what was originally intended to be a school gym, but when “Black Sunday” hit and many people abandoned neighborhoods, the parishes lost their base and were not able to build the hoped for church building and so remain much as they were at the beginning of their mission.

Today at least part of the prophecy of the Atlantic Quarterly is coming true. The expense of running a Catholic school is becoming such a burden that it is difficult to keep them open. The school where I am is healthy and growing. But there is not a school in the diocese that does not need to take its future into serious consideration. We no longer have nuns willing to work for room and board and a few dollars a week. Technology is a constant drain on finances. State mandates continue to grow but state funding for them continues to dry up. Of course most of our buildings are now about half a century old and they are expensive to maintain. But the single largest factor raising the cost of education through the roof is benefits.

Once free to any parishioner, yearly tuition is now in the thousands. That amount rarely covers the actual cost of teaching a child. Because of the cost, far less families take advantage of a parish school yet they still pay for other’s education through their donations to the parish that must subsidize the school to keep it afloat. There is some relief in Cleveland through the voucher system, but it is not enough.

Tuition rises and so less families take advantage of the school. With every empty desk the cost of teaching a child rises. Often the only alternative is raising tuition which in turn means less families taking advantage of the school, which in turn means it cost more to teach each child . . .

Phillip Morris, a non-Catholic columnist for the Plain Dealer talks about some of our schools in older neighborhoods this past Thursday. He notes that many can be largely non-Catholic now a days. Concerning sending his daughter to a closing Catholic school he writes, “. . . her mother and I have relied heavily on the diocese to provide our daughter with a quality and affordable education. Not once have we thought of converting. . . . Are we part of the problem or part of the solution? . . .Many non-Catholics have long viewed the church (sic) as a way to get a quality education on the cheap and have reaped the benefits without making a commitment. But the reality is the Catholic Church is not a coffee house. As painful as it seems to the affected, closings were inevitable. Now it falls to me to explain that to an 8-year-old, who often wonders why she is not Catholic.”

There are not any answers here. The unfortunate thing is that it comes down not desire and belief in the mission, but cost. Only so many cookies can be sold. Only so much can be gambled on through parish carnivals and Bingo. Tuition can only be raised so high before Catholic education becomes only for the elite.

Has the time for Catholic grade school education come and gone? Are we willing to let Catholic grade school education be only for the wealthy? Do we have a choice?