Dear Friend:
The Catholic Education Foundation is a national, grass-roots effort to preserve and expand an extremely important asset that is in danger of disappearing. That asset is the Catholic secondary school.
In 1960, there were 8,000,000 high school students in the United States, of whom 800,000 went to Catholic high school – 10% of the high school population. These U.S. students were taught mainly by consecrated religious (nuns, brothers, priests): 73% of the faculty were religious, with the balance being dedicated lay persons. Someone like myself could earn the $300 tuition through summer jobs. Today, of the 13,000,000 high school students in the United States, about 625,000 (less than 5%) attend Catholic high school. Only 5.8% of the teachers are consecrated religious. Tuition can range from $4,000 to $15,000 per year, with an average of about $6,000 to $7,000.
As you can see, what made the Catholic high school desirable and affordable were the consecrated religious, whose numbers are severely depleted today. Many of us still look at the Catholic high school as desirable and have done well enough to send our children to the new, expensive version of what we attended.
Religious teachers provided high-quality religious and secular education and were paid a mere subsistence salary. At this point, we do not have that luxury. Some schools are doing a very good job in retaining dedicated faculty and are trying their best to keep compensation competitive. For the system to maintain itself and even flourish, somehow we have to attract and train top-flight educators who have the dedication and commitment of the religious of old. Not an easy task.
The urgency to do this is not only vital to our children and the Church, but also to society-at-large when you realize the contributions the Catholic school makes to our society – people like Roger Staubach; Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas, Antonin Scalia and John Roberts; Regis Philbin; Vince Lombard; Alan Keyes.
Christ Washing Peter's Feet
Several years ago, after recognizing this problem, the Holy Spirit inspired in me the realization that the buck stops here. With His assistance and with no seed money from outside sources, we started the Catholic Education Foundation.
The Catholic Education Foundation’s goals include providing meaningful assistance to Catholic high schools in three areas:
- Student scholarships;
- Teacher formation programs;
- Recruitment and retention of quality educators through competitive compensation.
To date, we’ve provided thousands of dollars in scholarship money to deserving students.
We welcome your inquiries about the Foundation and appreciate your offer of time, skills and financial support. You can reach us by phone at (585) 899-1245/1255.
Warmly,
A. Joseph Indelicato
A Letter from Our Executive Director,
Father Peter Stravinskas:
Dear Friends and Supporters of CEF:
It was just about a year ago, that I accepted Mr. Indelicato’s invitation to serve as the Foundation’s executive director. It has been a busy and fruitful year.
My first priority has been to raise the visibility of the organization with the bishops. To that end, I have communicated with over fifty of them about our goals and objectives. I invited several to serve on our newly formed episcopal advisory board, and I am delighted to report that a baker’s dozen have graced us with their affirmative reply (for a complete list, consult the “Inside CEF” page of our website, and then select the tab “Our Board”).
We are offering dioceses two important programs, to which the bishops have responded with great enthusiasm: 1) a workshop for Catholic high school teachers to increase the Catholic identity of our institutions; 2) a seminar for priests to aid them in becoming a powerful and energizing presence and influence in our schools.
In early November, Catholic News Service (which provides material for every diocesan newspaper in the country) ran a very long and positive story about the Foundation. This will assist us in pursuing our goal of establishing local chapters of CEF.
A great deal of time and energy are being spent on planning our next CEF symposium and dinner, which shall be held at Kellenberg Memorial High School in Uniondale, New York (Long Island) on Friday, April 17, 2008. Bishop William Murphy of Rockville Centre has been most enthusiastic and supportive, for which we are very grateful. This day will feature top-notch speakers who will challenge Catholic educators and benefactors to renew and redouble our efforts on behalf of our Catholic high schools, nationwide. Please mark your calendars and plan to be with us for what promises to be an exciting and (we hope) profitable occasion, both educationally and financially. Stay tuned for further developments.
If you wish to contact me with your suggestions or comments, please feel free to call me at: 732-914-1222 or by email: fstravinskas@hotmail.com.
As I thank you for your commitment to the inestimable treasure of Catholic education, I ask for your prayers that the Lord would continue to bless my efforts to advance this cause of ours, which is nothing less the advancement of His Kingdom in our midst.
Sincerely yours in Christ,
Very Reverend Peter M. J. Stravinskas, Ph.D., S.T.D.
Executive Director
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