Catholic Schools - What is the Future? Still More Thoughts...

The Catholic Standard this week (Nov. 4, 2010 page 7) quotes Thomas Burnford, the archdiocesan Secretary for Catholic Educuation. He says:

"It's not always easy, but we have to be open and honest when we face difficulties..." "It's great when a comunity comes together to have an open and honest discussion about the future."

Let's face some facts here. The Archdiocese is basically telling the parishes and schools, that the problem is your problem, not our (the Archdiocese) problem. If you want a school next year, you have to raise X amount of dollars.

Now, the one good thing is that they are giving parishes more time to come up with the cash but still, they are putting the full burden on them.

The article discusses the process and the success of the consolidation of St. Mark the Evangelist (Hyattsville) and St. Camillus (Silver Spring). However, they are not telling you the full story.

1. St. Mark's was told that in order to remain open, they had to come up with $90,000. They came up with $86,000. But guess what, they were told that since they did not get the $90K, they were merging. You didn't hear about this in the Standard.

2. The the St. Francis International School was launched with great fanfare. However, enrollment is less than projected. Many of the St. Mark parents have sent their children elsewhere. In addition, there were layoffs at the start of the year due to this low enrollment. Neither of these facts were shared with you.

Look folks, the bottom line is that Cardinal-elect Wuerl is looking to shut down a number of Catholic schools. Remember when I wrote about this during the discussion of the policy and I was told that there were no plans to close any school down. What happened just a few months later? Do you really believe that they did not have a couple of schools in their sights?

Cardinal-elect Wuerl is doing it gradually and not in one fell swoop, like they did a number of years ago in DC. It prevents a public relations disaster and also keeps the awareness down to a bare minimum. If you close one or two schools this year, and one or two next, you really don't notice it (or may not hear about it) like you would 10 or 12 at a time.*

In addition, he and the Archdiocese are not going to take the heat for the closings..they are firmly placing the burden on the parishes. By placing it on you, it absolves the Archdiocese.

What do you think?

UPDATE (7am): Just this morning, a friend of mine informed me that up to 15 Catholic Schools (affecting over 4.000 students) may close in the Archdiocese of NYC. It has made the major newspapers and will be in the media for the next few months.

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BOYCOTT THE CCHD COLLECTION LATER THIS MONTH!

Catholic Schools - What is the Future? More thoughts

Up until just last year, if you had more than one child in the same elementary school, you usually received a discount for the second, third, fourth, etc. This discount may have been 10% of the tuition or a flat amount. In some instances, it was a progressive discount, the second was 5%, the third 10%, the fourth 15%, up to some sort of max.

Today, the Archdiocese has forced parishes to abandon this practice, as part of ensuring that the tuition covers actual costs.

However, any Catholic elementary school parent will tell you, that if you want a discount, you must go through their Tuition Assistance Program. They will determine, based on your income, if you should receive one or not. If, they determine, you make too much money, well then, you won't get anything, even if you have four or five children in Catholic schools.

This is really not a pro-family position, in my humble opinion.

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BOYCOTT THE CCHD COLLECTION LATER THIS MONTH!

Catholic Stanard Roundup This Week

Well folks, this week's edition of the Catholic Standard is chock full of stories.

First, those evil Republicans are at it again. It seems that Rep. John Boehner (R-OH), Rep. Daniel Issa (R-CA) and Rep. Howard McKeon (R-CA) are trying to save the DC Opportunity Scholarships. Don't they know that the NEA and other unions are just trying to stop this waste of money and ensure that everyone suffers equally. Fr. Peter Daly must be really mad about this latest development because he tells us how terrible those Republicans are, and how good the union bosses are, every chance he gets.

Second, the DC Catholic Conference is supporting the DC Defense of Marriage Act (HR 2608) which states: "That in the District of Columbia, for all legal purposes, 'marriage' means the union of one man and one woman." Can you believe that this was sponsored by Rep. Dan Boren (R-OK), Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and 30 others.

And you know what the best part was, there was no mention in the Standard that all of the Catholic members of the DC Council voted to recognize same-sex marriages. All are Democrats. Fr. Daly must really be really spitting mad at those Republicans for supporting Catholic beliefs.

Third, the Standard finally got around to printing almost a full page story on how the Bishops have reacted to the Notre Dame scandal. Of course, Fr. Reese supported the visite (what else is new). The Standard was a day late and a dollar short on this one.

We have a number of stories on various graduating classes.

We have a great story about Amanda Herndon, a former special education teacher at Our Lady of Mercy (Potomac MD), who founded the Girls Night Out club, so that young women with special needs can socialize in a relaxed setting with other girls her age. What a great pro-life story. And, Ms. Herndon probably did not even think of it in those terms.

As usual, Trinity College really knows how to insult our faith by allowing Maggie Williams (Class of 77) to not only give the commencement address but also an honorary doctor of laws. Who is she? Well, she was the former chief of staff to Hillary Clinton. Please don't tell me she is not pro-abortion.

Congratulations to Wesley Mann, a senior at St. Anselm's Abbey School, who was named the District's Poetry Out Loud champion. Word!

The centerfold is dedicated to those who have received the Sacrament of Confirmation. Congratulations! Live your life by your Roman Catholic faith.

A new Church is being built in Solomons. Wonderful.

But, there are dark clouds ahead for all of us.

Reps. James Sensenbrenner (R-WIS) and Chris Smith (R-NJ) has urged the Most Merciful, Lord High Barack Obama to forgo the rescinding of the conscience clause, which gives federal protection to the conscience rights of health care employees.

I wonder how many of those health care employees, esp. Catholic ones, voted for the Most Merciful. Well, you wanted change. Now you got it. It is possible you may loose your job because of your beliefs. Nice. Reminds me of a Mao's China and Hitler's Germany.

Finally, over 120 priests have convened to discuss the "best effort" to support Catholic education. This article probably would not have been written except for this blog, the posting of the Policy in 2009 paper and the efforts of a number of concerned Catholics (who got hell from their fellow Catholics).

The writing is on the wall folks.

I will discuss more on this later.

But, as Mr. Thomas Burnford (Sec. for Education) said: "the goal is to finalize the policies this summer so some of them can begin to implemented in the schools, this fall."

Have an enjoyable weekend.

Oh, and since every parish is required to have a number of copies (whether they like it or not), pick up your copy on Sunday, if you don't subscribe.

Catholic Schools - 2009 and Beyond

Yesterday, I wrote again about the DC scholarships and how it will basically die a very slow death unless there is some political change. (Yes, those mean and terrible Republicans allowed these students to leave failing schools. How dare they do that!)

Today, we continue with the drafting of the new Catholic school policy.

According to an article in the Catholic Standard (“After regional meetings...” Page 11 May 14, 2009), we find out the following information:

- There are almost 30,000 students in 98 Catholic schools (K thru 12).
- Of the 8 consultative meetings we have heard about taking place in the Archdiocese to set school policy, apx. 400 people participate.
- Since the 2007 Convocation on education, more than 2,000 people have participated in the consultative process.

So, let’s do some math.

Let’s say that of the 30,000 students in Catholic schools, with three students per family. That means that there are at least 10,000 families and we will say, that each family has two parents. That makes apx. 20,000 adults.

There were apx. 2500 people who participated in the consultations. We know that some were teachers, principals, people w/o children in schools and those with children in schools.

So, even if we say 1500 of the consultation participants were parents, what about the other 18,500? Do they get a say? What about the other Catholics in the Archdiocese, who help to support those schools? Don't they get a say?

To me, this whole process is a sham. There, I said it, a sham.

Look what Thomas Burnford said in the article:

“our experience shows that not every school can continue as it has done in the past, but we do know we can try to equitably distribute the cost of Catholic schools across the archdiocese as best as we can, with the ultimate goal of keeping Catholic schools accessible o as many young people as possible.”

He continues:

"Our hope is to have final approval in the early summer, so we can begin the process of implementation in the fall.”

There you have it. School closings will take place.

I don't care what spin Ms. Gibbs puts on it, I don't care what spin Mr. Burnford puts on it, ask anyone from the Archdiocese if they will close schools, and they will not answer the question. If there were no school closings, they would come right out and say it.

If your child is in a Catholic school, and it is not doing well financially and/or your facility is in need of major repairs, you may just find yourself at a meeting in January with Thom Duffy (CFO of the Diocese) telling you that your school will be closing.

The Archbishop has done this in Pittsburgh, has done it here, and will continue to do it.