(This is one in a series of articles generated by the Convocation held this fall in which various departments of the Atlanta archdiocese explained their work and answered questions raised by the assembled priests. This article discusses the major issue raised then regarding the Department of Education.)

By Rita McInerney and Gretchen Keiser

The crucial need to find new sources of funding for Catholic schools dominated the discussion following a presentation by Sister Roberta Schmidt, CSJ, secretary for education, at the Convocation October 31.

While her presentation touched upon a number of issues under her purview, including religious education and campus ministry, questions from priests indicated a primary concern for them is the money spent by parishes to pay for Catholic school education for some of their parishioners.

“Everyone agrees that the cost of Catholic schools is becoming prohibitive,” Sister Schmidt said in her talk. “Tuition and parish subsidies escalate annually. New funding solutions have to be found.”

A combination of funding alternatives will be necessary to help assure the future of Catholic schools in the archdiocese, she said, including corporate support from businesses, development programs at each school plus an annual fund drive, endowments, and public funding.

“The issue of choice in education is in the air,” she said. “There is need to develop lay and parental leadership at parish and diocesan levels to enable the faithful to become involved in the public policy process.”

Choice in education refers to the effort federally to provide parents with vouchers for a set amount of money which they could use toward education for their children whether in public or in private or parochial schools.

Sister Schmidt said the Church also needs to seek more from the state of Georgia in terms of educational support. “The state has expectations of the Church in terms of social services and preferences for the poor, but it gives no reciprocal assistance in terms of textbooks, auxiliary services, transportation.”

In the question and answer segment, however, several priests expressed concern about the parish subsidies that are paid to Catholic schools outside the parish for children attending that school.

Subsidies range from $700 to $1,000 per child depending upon the particular school and its budget. Using a formula developed a number of years ago by the archdiocese, the subsidy is determined and feeder parishes, which send children from their parish to another parish elementary school, are billed for the subsidy per student.

This is in addition to the tuition paid by the family itself to the Catholic school.

A different arrangement prevails at St. John Neumann regional school, which was created in the 1980s as a regional rather than a parish elementary school. As a result parents pay the full cost of education in their tuition payment, Sister Schmidt said in an interview. Parishes that are part of the regional school network pay a subsidy, but the subsidy is paying off the cost of the school building itself.

In the other elementary schools which are parish-based, the home parish pays for the structure and maintenance of the school, and tuition and subsidies account for the educational portion of the budget and day-to-day operation of the school.

Each Catholic school also has a higher tuition rate for non-Catholics who attend the school, since they are not subsidized.

In the question and answer part of the Convocation, Father Tom Carroll, MS, brought up a new proposal that has been developed in a preliminary fashion.

A subcommittee designated by Archbishop James P. Lyke, OFM, made a recommendation to the Priests Council in October concerning Catholic school tuition and subsidy.

The proposal was for parents to pay full tuition for their children in Catholic school and for families needing financial aid to seek it from an endowment fund. The endowment fund would be made up of contributions of $500 per child made by parishes with children enrolled in parochial schools. An annual archdiocesan collection for this endowment fund was also recommended.

The subcommittee was made up of three pastors, Monsignor R. Donald Kiernan, chairman, Father Carroll, and Father Robert Baker, SM, and Dr. LaVerne Iaffaldano, a Catholic educator.

Archbishop Lyke, however, said at the Convocation and in a follow-up interview December 5 that he did not consider this proposal to be sufficient and that he does not foresee any change in the present subsidy formula for a considerable amount of time until more alternatives are researched and a “broad consultation” in the archdiocese has taken place. (See Text Of Archbishop’s Comments)

During the Convocation discussion, Father Dan O’Connor, pastor of St. Jude’s in Atlanta, reminded his brother priests that the present subsidy policy was given much study before being implemented. Archbishop Thomas Donnellan had two purposes, to preserve the schools and to prevent different levels of tuition payment, Father O’Connor explained.

Father Ed Everitt, pastor of Holy Cross in Atlanta, commented that “the way it’s going the subsidy now is only for upper, middle-income families” because less well-off families can’t afford the tuition rate. He expressed the concern that any revision would take poorer families into consideration.

Sister Schmidt agreed that “it appeared we are moving in the direction of an elitist population because of the cost of education.”

Father Terry Kane, pastor of St. Catherine, of Siena in Kennesaw, said he sees “no support for Catholic schools in reading the minutes of the Priests’ Council over the past five years.”

However, Catholic schools, in his opinion, have “historical, present and future value” and can be used as models. He would rather see “more money in education than in other ministries.”

Father Bill Hoffman, pastor of St. Michael’s in Gainesville said private evangelical schools “don’t worry about meeting anybody else’s criteria. Couldn’t we try something like that rather than meeting all the criteria of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools?”

“We would be sacrificing if we did not meet the minimum standard of accreditation. The parents demand this,” Sister Schmidt emphasized.

Catholic schools of today are not the Catholic schools of 30 years ago, Father Edward Murray, parochial vicar of OLA, commented. The subsidy has doubled from the $485 of four or five years ago, and the “ambience and atmosphere” associated with pre-Vatican II schools no longer exists. “Now the Religious are out of the schools and teachers are not all Catholic.”