Heartfelt Reflections on Catholic Education

As our St. Paul parents know, it's been a difficult August at school. Three of our teachers accepted teaching positions in local public schools (kind of at the last minute, which is when the public schools typically do their hiring). These moves generated plenty of commentary and questions, and I'd like to share my thoughts with you.

For each of these three teachers, the decision to leave St. Paul was a wrenching one. They loved St. Paul, the children and families, and their colleagues. The reality is - I can't pay any of my teachers what they're worth. Our pay scale is roughly 60% of the pay scale in Grosse Pointe Public Schools. Those of us who commit to a career in Catholic education do so knowing that we're sacrificing pay for the opportunity to share our ministry. Some teachers simply can't afford to do that, much as they might want to do so.

For families who choose Catholic education, I always tell you that you have wonderful choices in our community: top-rated public schools and excellent private schools. We offer something different - a faith based education where our primary purpose is catechesis: helping our children to grow in their faith. You certainly don't sacrifice an excellent academic education in order to choose faith-based education! About 2/3's of our graduates go on to take honors courses in high school. Our parent satisfaction rate (for faith, academics, teachers, and leadership) is in the upper 80% range (based on the spring, 2012 survey which received 135 family responses). Our standardized test scores are typically in the top 10% nationally (the scores that qualified us for our National Blue Ribbon).

But the reality is that we cannot offer everything that the public schools can offer - they can spend double, per child, what we can spend ($10,000 per child vs. our per child cost of $5,000). The private school discrepancy is even higher - their tuition ranges from $15,000 to nearly $20,000 per child, per year. When parents come to me and ask why we don't have smaller classes, or more honors classes, or more subject or extracurricular offerings - this is the reason. More than 85% of our school budget goes to salaries and benefits. The only reason we can provide a high-quality academic education at $5,000 per child is because our salaries can't compete with the public school.

Some of you know that I am a member of the Archdiocesan Catholic School Advisory Board. Our charge is to find a way to make Catholic education available, sustainable, and affordable for the next generation of Catholic school students. I have to be honest - I'm not sure how we're going to do that! St. Paul is in great shape, because we have a parish community that annually provides a school subsidy of more than $350,000. Is this the only way Catholic education can survive - in the affluent parishes? Most parishes can't provide even a fraction of that subsidy.

Please continue to pray for our school and parish, and for all the schools in the Archdiocese of Detroit. We are absolutely committed to faith-based day school education. Pray for our teachers and their deep commitment to your children and their growth in the faith.



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