The growing elitism of Catholic education

One of the hot topics during our family’s Christmas gathering was Catholic education. My niece is a senior in high school, and as with everyone her age, she is consumed with selecting a college. Her parents are allowing her some freedom, but prefer that she attends a college with a good, Catholic environment.

They were all impressed with Catholic University of America. For my sister and brother-in-law, it was local and had a good religious atmosphere, and for my niece, it had solid academic programs and quick access to the city.

I spent many years at CUA, earning my doctorate, and my sister asked my opinion of the school. I enjoyed my time there, and heartily approved. Then, I heard the price - $52,852. (I had my tuition covered through a teaching assistantship).

Indebting a young adult with $211,000 in loans is not Catholic, and borders on being immoral.

After recovering from the shock, I reviewed a lot of other Catholic colleges. While many are cheaper than CUA, it pains me that all the schools were over six figures for four years of education. In good conscience, I could not recommend these schools to my niece unless she received a substantial scholarship.

My own family is at the opposite end of the spectrum, with my son entering kindergarten in the fall. I desperately want to send him to our parish school, and if we made some sacrifices, we could afford to send him there. Cutting out money budgeted for cable TV, going out to eat, and vacations would get us halfway there, and teaching extra classes would cover the other half. Here’s the problem. We have another son, and we would like to have more children. Since our parish has no family discount, what will we do in the future?

Rising prices are the bane of all education these days, unfortunately. The University of California is going at least a hundred thousand give or take for four years, realistically. (Yes, even Riverside.) Cal State’s sixty thousand for four years even for commuter students. Live in the dorms or off-campus and you’re going closer to a hundred. The private universities, of course, for the most part go up from there. My (Protestant) private school is $6300 a year for junior high, $7500 a year for high school, and our sister grade school costs $5100. (I think the high-school rate for a year is not much less than it cost to put me through eighth through twelfth outright, the years I went there, in the Seventies and Eighties. Oy.) So believe me, even though I’m not a parent I’m feeling the doc’s pain.

How to fix all this? With all due respect, for obvious reasons, I’m no longer as keen on the voucher thing as I used to be. I’m inclined to tell the government “keep your money and we’ll keep our freedom”. I’m also not crazy about being too tough on sports and other programs, although I’d watch the budgets even more like a hawk than the educational budget, and in all cases if we really need the new toys figure out how to get them as economically as possible. Generally speaking, I’m thinking raise money, squeeze every dollar until it screams and get people to give as much time and talent as they can as well as money. Basically, the old fashioned way.

Indoctrination is amazing when you consider you are worried about children that aren’t even born yet.

Prudent people think about this stuff before they have to.

Have you even looked at Catholicism on the internet to see what it actually entails?

And in books. And on TV and radio. And I’m currently in RCIA. I heartily encourage any and all of you who are interested to look into Catholicism and see for yourself what it actually entails. I would, however, suggest you make a fair effort to consult the Church’s resources and those of folks who are trying to follow its teaching in addition to the resources of folks who are trying to draw you away from it.

I was raised a Lutheran and have since become a Christian by reading my bible and find the truth in Christ. I urge you to do the same unless you are afraid of the truth.

First, I’m sorry you feel you weren’t a Christian before. I have not only Lutheran friends but friends from all over the denominational map (including Catholics) whom I consider Christian brothers and sisters, and who in many (most) cases quite candidly have been better at living out the faith than I have.

Second, I did several round trips through the Bible over the last decade, mostly well before I was even thinking of becoming Catholic. And when I did start considering the possibility and doing the research, that helped me to see “Yeah, that’s right, that makes sense. They’re not just making stuff up.”

The history of the Catholic church is one of murder and deceit as well as immoral atrocities. I base those statements on facts and not just rumors.

Unfortunately true. Those things are part of the Church’s history, as they are of all human history. Sometimes done by its people, sometimes done to them. Not that the latter at all excuses the former...it absolutely does not...but the latter is just as much a matter of historical fact as the former. And with all due respect, I think history also indisputably shows one of God’s greatest miracles...that He’s been able to use a divided, persecuted and sinful flock of believers (including Catholics) to be a blessing to the world.

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