 | A New Era for Catholic Schools
Between 1990 and the current school year, many schools in the Diocese of Greensburg closed. In many cases, enrollment declined following tuition increases that were not accompanied by an increase in the pool of tuition assistance funds. As a result, for some families, a Catholic education was out of reach for their children.
We have entered a new era in Catholic education. Parishes can no longer sustain our Catholic schools in the same way they did in the past. Justice demands a fair wage for our teachers, which requires a pay increase. Many of our facilities are aging and are in frequent need of expensive repairs and updates. And with the introduction of technology into the classroom to prepare students for the workplace they will enter, the cost of educating students has increased significantly. All of this has put a tremendous burden on parish communities that have supported our church as well as consolidated schools.
Boosting Our Investment in Human Resources
After the students, teachers are the schools' most precious assets. The Catholic identity of our schools, the strong academic programs, and the modeling provided to students has long depended upon faculty committed to the mission of Catholic education.
For decades, women religious, who worked for minimal compensation, comprised the majority of Catholic schools teaching staffs, building the quality and reputation of our schools. As their numbers decline, they have been replaced by salaried lay principals and teachers. Today, lay teachers, each strongly committed to the mission of Catholic education, outnumber religious personnel in our elementary schools nine to one. And, since 1997, women religious who are teaching or serving as administrators in our schools have received salaries comparable to their lay counterparts.
A Just Wage
While the cost of instruction has increased, in part due to the influx of salaried lay faculty, salaries for both lay and religious teachers in Catholic schools have not kept pace with their public school counterparts. In 2001, the average salary for elementary school teachers serving in diocesan Catholic schools was just under $19,000, and the average Catholic high school teacher's salary was approximately $35,000. By comparison, full-time public school teachers in Westmoreland County average annual salaries between $40,000 and $50,000, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Education.
One of the most important objectives behind implementing a different funding model for the schools is to pay all of our excellent teachers a just wage. More equitable salaries will also make it possible to attract more teachers and make it more likely that we will be able to retain our best teachers (especially in light of the projected increase in demand for teachers in local public schools over the next decade). By implementing the cost-based tuition/need-based assistance model, an aggressive plan for improving teacher salaries in our Catholic schools is now in place.
The Price of Delivering High Quality Education
In addition to the need of providing a just wage for our excellent teachers, as well as the need to maintain and repair aging facilities, technology has become an essential - and expensive - tool in education. Within the past few years, more than $1 million dollars (in the form of cash and federal e-rate discounts) has been spent to integrate technology into our diocesan schools. Technology is not to be used merely to automate existing teaching methods, but to be used as a tool to empower students to think on their own, stir their creativity, and enhance their learning experiences.
The New Tuition Plan
The cost to educate an elementary age student in the Diocese of Greensburg has risen steadily over the past three decades, from $256 per child in the 1970-71 school year, to $2,607 in 2000-01. Like Catholic schools throughout the country, our elementary schools have traditionally been funded through the combination of tuition, fund-raising, diocesan funds, and a combination of subsidies from the parish (or parishes) affiliated with the school. Historically, these parish subsidies consumed a high percentage of parish income that was distributed to all school families without regard to financial need, putting a Catholic school education out of reach for many families.
Parishes today are simply unable to increase subsidies to cover the increasing cost of education. To maintain and build the quality of our present school system, a new funding formula is a necessity.
A New Formula for Success
Parish resources allocated to an elementary school (parish or regional) have always been a form of tuition assistance to parents who chose to enroll their child in a Catholic school. Today, we base this form of tuition assistance on family need. It is a simple, yet fundamental, change in the way that parish resources are distributed.
This funding model is intended to preserve the Catholic school option for as many parents as possible, giving many more families the opportunity to choose the gift of a Catholic school education for their children.
A Common Mission
Our school finance model asks that all parishes of the diocese, with or without a school, assist in this important mission of the church by contributing to the Parish Supported Financial Aid Fund. It, combined with endowments funded by the "Honoring Our Past ... Shaping Our Future" capital campaign and other gifts, is expected to generate approximately $5 million annually. Since the education of our children is a common responsibility of the church of Greensburg, all parishes support this mission. The concept of all parishes contributing is what makes this approach different from similar models employed by colleges and other private schools. Although colleges and private schools use a financial aid model, this plan incorporates the resources of the Catholic community to ensure that a Catholic school education is affordable for as many families as possible. |