Posted on 07/26/2008 8:05:16 AM PDT by Amelia
The District will use a $7.5 million education reserve fund to pay for the seven former Catholic schools slated to reopen as secular charter schools next month, and it will be able to find more money if necessary, officials said this week.
The D.C. Council allocated $366 million in May for 63 charter schools as part of its fiscal 2009 budget. Financing for the Center City Public Charter Schools was omitted, officials said, because Center City's application was not approved by the charter school board until June 16.
The Catholic school conversions are unusual, they said, because most charters spend 12 to 15 months between approval and opening to find buildings and staff. Center City's seven campuses are ready to accept students...
...Estimates of how much the schools will cost the city range from $7 million to $16 million...Still unknown are how many Center City students will be new to the District and how many will transfer from traditional public or public charter schools. For those already in the system, funding will be largely in place through the per-pupil formula....
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
It will be interesting to see if the Catholic school model can be successfully transferred to a secular school.
I don't see why it couldn't be.
how many of the students attending here are illegal aliens, or anchor babies who should be illegal aliens?
One of my kids is in Catholic school- I don’t see how a “secular school” can function the same. Cathholic schools have a moral compass that points to God. Secular schools have moral relativist compasses that swing wherever the holder wishes it to swing.
The only model for kids born to illiterate teenage girls who are in their 3rd, 4th, 5th or 6th generation in the DC projects that MIGHT work as well as a faith based curriculum- would be a military style school that requires discipline and self control. Those traits are anathema to the adminstrators who have risen to the top of the PhD education dung heap by pumping the victimization culture.
Moral relativism is already available for free in the public schools.
Catholic schools usually have a more disciplined approach, so I'm interested to see whether the discipline works as well without the faith-base.
Students attending in D.C., or students currently attending these Catholic schools?
I don't know the answer but I suspect you could get an approximation by looking at the number of "English language learners" at each school or in the district.
Let me add that Catholic schools usually have parents who have a more disciplined approach as well.
radiohead - 12 years DC Catholic schools
I really think it can. And radiohead hits a major point in regard to parents.
Even if it is secular, if they are going in knowing ahead of time regarding a much more disciplined environment, I don't think it will matter much that it is secular, rather than faith-based.
Gabz --- product of 12 years NYC Catholic schools.
Good point.
From what I've seen, the schools that work best with at-risk students (whether public or charter) also have a very disciplined approach, and most require a good bit of parental involvement.
GMTA! :-)
ping
Am I correct that most of the students attending these schools were not Catholic. Their parents did not have any interest in learning more about the Catholic Church or join the religion. Few of the students joined the Catholic Church upon graduation.
It is far better for the Catholic Church to use its scarce funds to give **Catholic** children a thoroughly Catholic education.
A Christian parent's **most** important mission field is his own children. Next is the mission field of children of the congregation.
Hopefully we will see more congregations like Wichita, Kansas, where **all** Catholic children have access to tuition **FREE** Catholic schools.
Finally, the children attending the Catholic charters will still receive much of the same excellent teaching and values.
There are only two possible religious worldviews possible for any school: God-centered or godless.
Neither is religiously neutral in content or consequences.
You can find some background information here and here.
Apparently the Archbishop here is the same one responsible for closing and consolidating a lot of the schools in Pennsylvania. I believe Twink and Tired of Taxes were complaining about that a week or two ago.
I’m only familiar with philly public and Catholic schools...and a few philly suburban public districts and Catholic parishes, not the rest of PA.
We’ve had quite a few parish schools closed/merged to a regional Catholic K-8 school in my area and surrounding area (South Jersey).
I think it’s sad but understand the reasons.
Some of the students I attended school with were not Catholic, but being in the city, their parents wanted them in a Catholic school: discipline, high academic standards, safety, Jesus as the core, etc. A few in my kids K-8 Catholic school aren’t Catholic but the parents contribute to the parish and school financially and with volunteer hours. It doesn’t matter if they convert to Catholicism. However, we have a waiting list for certain grades and active Catholics are at the top of the list along with siblings, etc.
We’re in an affluent town so our parish k-8 school won’t be closing anytime soon especially with the closing of a few surrounding parish schools this past June.
I can understand that Catholics would have preference in Catholic schools. It also seems to me that having schools in "bad" neighborhoods and allowing non-Catholics to attend might be an effective evangelistic tool, but I don't really have any data (and haven't looked for any) on how effective it actually is.
ITA with most of the post except the part about it being effective to have non-Catholics as an evangelical tool. I don’t know the stats either, Amelia. Seems to me, personal experience, that those who can’t afford tuition shouldn’t be attending the schools and those of us pay for those who can’t or won’t, just like everywhere else.
As for the schools accepting non-catholics, it happens mostly in low income areas. And we, those who can pay full tuition, end up paying for those who can’t. Parish schools are more independent. The parish/school principal controls most of it. Now let’s look at the high schools, prep and diocesan high schools. Tuition is astronomical. Anywhere from above $10,000 for the few high schools to $20,000 for the prep high schools. And that’s per year.
Sure, some low income families get a free ride at the expense of the rest of us. We are paying for those going free. My oldest tested so well she got a free ride to Bishop Eustace Prep. 4 yr high school education tuition cost about $60,000 for 4 yrs. It would have been an option if it was as good as the local public high school. She got a free ride because of her gpa and test scores. Good school but not as good as the local public high school. The latter had more to offer and we really liked the levels, which Catholic high schools don’t do around here.
Catholic grade school tuition (and high school) is astronomical for those of us who work and have to pay it. I don’t blame the schools or the Dioceses. But, we do pay for those who are low income, etc. Right now I pay over $700 per month for my two youngest for Catholic grade school. IT was more when all 4 were there. Approximately $7,000 per year for the two now. I can’t imagine anyone paying that who doesn’t make the money my husband does.
those who can’t afford tuition shouldn’t be attending the schools and those of us pay for those who can’t or won’t, just like everywhere else.
Twink, I can see your point about not wanted to finance others with your private school tuition, especially when you're already paying public school taxes as well...
Looking back at the history of Catholic schools, when they were started in this country, the Protestant religion was being taught in the public schools, and the Catholic church wanted all Catholic students to be able to attend a school where they learned their religion and not a different one, so the idea of subsidizing low income Catholics originated with the origination of Catholic schools in the U.S. Do you think that idea has outlived its usefulness?
I don't really know about in the north, but I know that here in the south (at least when I was a child) the Catholic church seemed ahead of others in terms of "social justice" issues...it was the only church I was aware of in my home town where blacks and whites worshipped together.
Of course, before and just after the Civil War, the other churches were also integrated, but in many cases the black members chose to split off and form their own churches (possibly/probably because they felt they were being still treated as slaves by the white members) but it would have been more difficult to split off a Catholic church I'd think...
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