Education

Urban Catholic Schools Face Hard Financial Times

ST. PAUL (AP) ― The changing face of the urban population has posed new academic and financial problems for inner-city parochial schools, with many schools being forced to close or merge, while others try to continue operating on a shoestring budget.

Risen Christ school in south Minneapolis is one example. When Helen Dahlman took over in 2000, nearly all students spoke English, the mix of black and white students was about even, and the Latino population was small. Now, fewer than one in 10 students are white. Nearly half are Latino and some are African refugees with little formal schooling. Most can afford little or no tuition.

Risen Christ school "has done amazing things that would outpace a school in Wayzata or Burnsville, and they've done it on a shoestring," said Amy Smith, a University of St. Thomas professor who's studied 15 Roman Catholic schools in St. Paul and Minneapolis over the past year.
"But they can't continue to do it on a shoestring."

Smith's team found schools need more help teaching reading to English language learners, reaching out to parents who speak little English, and using testing data to improve instruction.

At Risen Christ, there are new expenses that weren't on the books when Dahlman started. Besides two secretaries fluent in Spanish, Risen Christ has a family liaison, sends documents home in Spanish and English and employs a social worker.

Tuition pays for about 10 percent of the operating budget, but the school has met much of its outside funding goals this year, mostly through "the generosity of friends who find out about our mission," Dahlman said.

"Our inner-cities schools are going through a tumultuous time," said Tom McCarver, the retired superintendent of schools for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and executive director of Friends of Urban Catholic Schools.

"We don't want to disappear from the places of poverty," McCarver said.

But staying in those neighborhoods means finding new ways to meet students' needs and pay for education. St. Peter Claver, a mostly African-American parish church in St. Paul, reopened its elementary school in 2001 in response to demand for Catholic education.

McCarver said only a few of the school's students come from families that can afford to pay the entire $2,900 tuition. He estimated it costs about $5,550 a year to educate a child in the urban Catholic schools.

The schools are adapting with literacy techniques and teaching to meet the needs of English language learners. McCarver said his group soon will be studying math instruction.

"We do not want to simply stay in existence," he said. "Our job is to produce top learners for the metro area."

Without help, he said, he worries some schools will not make it.

An April report by the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation found that some cities are seeing growth in Catholic schools, while others are not -- despite vouchers to help pay tuition. The report found hope in the growth of national networks of schools run by Catholic religious orders independent of a specific parish. Those include the Cristo Rey and NativityMiguel networks.

Cristo Rey, run by the Jesuits, opened a high school in Minneapolis last year.

NativityMiguel, run by the Christian Brothers order, opened San Miguel Middle School in Minneapolis in 2000. San Miguel teaches students in grades six through eight.

"Most of our kids come to us at a second- or third-grade reading level," said school President Ben Murray. Almost all are English language learners, but the school has found that many techniques used to help them are "good for everybody."

The school's also been able to run tuition-free, thanks to fundraising and philanthropy.

Finding a new way to pay for the expanding needs of their students is critical, leaders say. The old funding model -- tuition, plus parish and archdiocese support, plus a little fundraising -- won't cut it anymore.

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