Tuition at St. Pius X High School will rise $100 next year and at St. Joseph High School by $25, Archbishop Thomas A. Donnellan announced in letters to parents of students.

The St. Pius scale next September will be $350 for the first child, $300 for the second and $250 for all others. At St. Joseph’s, it will be $275, $250 and $200.

All non-Catholics will be charged the exact cost of their education, which is expected to amount to about $500.

The archbishop said the difference in St. Pius and St. Joseph’s hikes was due to a foundation turning the former Drexel High School sale money over to the archdiocese for support of St. Joseph’s.

The full letter follows:

Dear Parents:

Tuition at both Saint Pius and Saint Joseph’s High Schools is being raised next year, at the recommendation of the Archdiocesan Board of Education and the Archdiocesan Financial Committee. Before any public announcement is made, I wished to write to our parents to explain the reason for the raise.

Inflationary costs are, of course, part of the cause for making adjustments in the tuition scale. But other factors, too, have added substantially to the expense of operating our high schools. Most significant this year are three factors:

1. Hospitalization benefits for both religious and lay teachers, and lay employees.

2. An increase in the starting salaries of lay teachers.

3. Increased salaries for religious.

All of these steps were vitally needed not only to compensate justly our many loyal teachers, but to attract others to their ranks. Our schools can be only as good as the teachers in the classroom. The increases are not only necessary, they are overdue.

These advances, plus the general increase in all costs, have caused a substantial increase in school costs. This increase can be met either by adding it to the assessments of our parishes, or by raising tuition. Because assessments are very high now, and because they will rise approximately $30,000 even without the added high school expense, I felt that a raise in tuition had to be enacted.

Tuition at St. Pius X will be $350 for the first child, $300 for the second and $250 for all others. At Saint Joseph, the tuition will be $275, $250 and $200. Tuition for non-Catholics will be at the exact cost of education, about $500.

This will be the first year that tuition at the two schools is not the same. During the past year the Raskob Foundation turned the money received from the sale of Drexel High School back to the archdiocese for the support of Saint Joseph High School. Interest on the money will amount to approximately $20,000 this year, and because of this additional income, we have had to raise tuition there by only $25.

I appreciate the problems of parents who wish their children to have a Catholic high school education, but who find it difficult or impossible to meet the full cost of such education. Therefore, I have asked that both schools establish scholarships to aid such students, and have arranged for assistance from the archdiocese in this project.

I realize that some families will not be able to meet the higher tuition, but I do not want them to take their children from the schools. I have asked the principals of both schools to use the scholarship fund in the way they feel is most beneficial for our parents. I ask you to please confer with the principal, rather than simply to withdraw your children.

Please be assured of my gratitude for your understanding of the problems connected with the financing of Catholic education, and of my prayers for God’s blessing on you and your children. Sincerely Yours in Christ,

Most Reverend Thomas A. Donnellan

Archbishop of Atlanta