Catholic Education: An Affordable Choice

By Mary Frances McCarthy
HERALD Staff Writer
(From the issue of 12/19/02)

A Catholic education will become more attainable for every child in every family in the Arlington Diocese starting in the 2003-04 school year.

According to Dr. Timothy McNiff, diocesan superintendent of schools, about 23 percent of students are considered minority students, but there has been a loss of diversity among socio-economic classes in the student body.

McNiff hopes that through the newly established Tuition Assistance Program, the diocese will be able to enhance the socio-economic diversity of its students.

The Tuition Assistance Program will replace the Parish Assistance for Catholic Education (PACE) program, where parishes made contributions to schools based on the number of children from that parish that attended each school.

The Tuition Assistance Program is the product of a committee of pastors and laity that met last spring and presented their ideas to Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde at the Priests’ Council meeting held in May.

Many pastors were not satisfied with the PACE program. Through PACE, not every parish made contributions, and there was concern about how the money should be used once it was turned over to the schools. The priests were looking for a more equitable way to determine how much each parish should contribute. They also showed interest in securing the funds raised for families who wish to send their children to Catholic schools, but can not afford to.

Under the new program, parish contributions will be based on a parish’s income. All parishes will contribute a percentage of their income to the program. The amount of money collected will be roughly the same amount that was collected under the PACE program, about $1.1 million.

All funds collected from parishes will be forwarded to the Office of Catholic Schools. The Office of Catholic Schools has secured a contract with Private School Aid Service (PSAS), an Ohio-based tuition analysis company, which will analyze financial aid applications received from school families and will decide who should qualify for assistance. Applications will be available from each school in December in both English and Spanish and will be due to PSAS in February. Parents will be notified in April by the school as to whether their application has been accepted.

PSAS has a long history of providing an accurate and realistic financial need analysis, and will help the Office of Schools to better determine who should be considered for assistance.

Financial assistance will be applied where it is most needed. There will be no quotas to fill in any specific school or area. According McNiff, "All we’re looking at is family need, not schools, not zip codes."

Families will be awarded assistance based on their financial need in relation to the need of other families who file applications and the amount of assistance available. A family’s need is assessed by considering not only their total income, but also the age of the parent(s), their marital status and the size of the family.

To be eligible for tuition assistance, a student must be: a baptized Catholic or convert officially received into the Church, their family must reside within diocesan boundaries, be registered with and an active member of the parish, and attend or be accepted by a Catholic school in the diocese.

The funds will be paid directly to the school that the qualifying student attends and applied to that student’s account. In the event that the student withdrawals from the school before the end of the school year, the money will be prorated. The award is not transferable to any other school. Families must file an application each year to be considered for assistance.

At the end of its third year, the Tuition Assistance Program will be evaluated, and further revisions will be made if necessary.

McNiff said in a November letter to all pastors, "I truly believe the new improvements to our tuition assistance policy will enhance our effort to recruit and enroll a greater social-economical diversity of students in our schools."

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