We are not Catholics and neither is an adult child and his wife.
They spent a lot of money, time and effort to pay for their 2 kids to attend great Catholic private high schools with excellent academic and sport results.
Their girl with one B and solid A’s in all of her school years was not accepted at any Cal university for a STEM program. Every out of state school accepted her. She got a $25 K/year scholarship at a major E. coast university. She is now in her 3rd year.
Their son, a new high school grad, this year, was accepted at 9 out of 9 engineering schools, that he applied to and 2 that he didn’t apply to. He decided to go to a Cal State school that his Dad did. The out of state schools even with some scholarships were much more expensive than the Cal State school without any economic aid. Also, there will be no expensive plane flights to and from college.
Their former public school classmates/friends were basically not accepted at any Cali university unless they were jocks.
Their former public schools were good from K-9. Then, they became typical Cali warehouses for delinquents.
My mother became a social worker in the last 20 years of her life. I remember her worry about a young black child who didn’t have a birth certificate and had some learning disabilities. So she scraped together the money to have a secret scholarship for him in a Catholic school, though he wasn’t Catholic, because THEY would be the place he’d get the help he needed. I hope some of that early-years-help DID help him.