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Catholic schools on average cost around $7000 per year and offer many different clubs and sports teams that yeshivas charging more than twice as much offer. I have my theories which I won’t share but I’m curious as to if anyone has any I sight as to what the reason for the discrepancy in cost might be.
The church subsidizes it (it’s an investment for them) and they have very cheap labor (nuns get paid a lot less than rebbeim).
The Vatican is cash wealthy.
In Catholic schools the non-secular portion of the curriculum is minimal. If Jewish schools limited their curriculum to one or two periods a day, the costs would fall radically. The reason our schools are expensive is we are trying keep the traditional Torah curriculum , while also teaching a full “modern”secular curriculum. When the goyim switched to a “modern” curriculum (with lots of math, social studies and science) they totally gave up on their classical curriculum. – and today few goyim know anything about their own cultural heritage beyond what they picking from watching TV shows.
Do Catholic schools allow the enrollment of very many children with non-paying parents or parents paying a very minimal tuition, as very many Yeshivos allow?
@Das Yochid continued
Catholic elementary, middle and high schools are NOT independent entities as Yeshivos are. They may be attached to a particular parish, but are owned and operated by the Diocese.
As such there are collections for the schools in churches throughout the diocese and the funds allocated from a central office (this is on top of tuition collected by the school).
There are 2 dioceses in CT. This coming school year they will have closed another 20+ schools due to low enrollment and combined them. The nearby town of Monroe, CT is losing its only Catholic school as enrollment had fallen to 91 students from a high of 400, it and the 2 remaining schools in the adjoining town of Shelton, CT will combine in one school with a combined enrollment of approx 350. In the early 1970s there were more than 1500 students in Shelton parochial elementary schools.
Being run by a diocese yields economies of scale not enjoyed by yeshivos. There are systems in place to share purchasing, buying in larger quantities cost less. A central office supplies IT support, bookkeeping and curriculum functions.
The individual schools are usually in buildings on local church grounds. The parish takes care of landscaping, snowplowing, etc.@Joseph
Catholic schools do not turn away students from families in the parish based on ability to pay. They do massive fundraising to meet scholarship needs and operational costs.
Our small town catholic schools have about 35% of the student body receiving reduced tuition (I have friends on the BOD), while large cities of low income/immigrant student bodies (such as Bridgeport) may have 80+ percent of students paying less than full tuition).Our local Catholic High School has a base tuition of $18,000 per year. Very few students pay 100% of tuition. The high schools have a way to earn extra tuition dollars that is not feasible for yeshivos, They may bring in foreign exchange students under E-1 student visas (you may have seen or read advertisements looking for American Host families). This enrollment may be up to 10% the student body. These foreign students are billed FULL tuition PLUS and additional $10,000 per academic year, plus all expenses: lunch, uniforms, books, lab fees, transportation. It is a cash cow for the schools. (It is also used by MANY non religious private high schools to keep afloat).
These foreign students (the largest group is from China_) are by and large non-Catholics, but must take religion classes and attend Mass, etc. in school, even as known non believers. the schools do not try to convert them, they just want the cash.@Daas Yochid
The days of Catholic Schools in America being substantially staffed by nuns ended in the 1970s. Today, most Parochial schools have lay person faculties.
Our Town has 2 Catholic K-8 schools and a High School. There is not a single nun on the staff in any of them (I checked the faculty directory on their websites).When you have a baby you are expected to start contributing to Catholic Schools. Something yeshivas dont and cannot do , because Catholic Schools are under one umbrella organization and yeshivas are not
How do Catholic schools force parents of babies to pay money to the school?
Catholic schools on average pay their teachers better, on time and offer benefits.
Another financial factor that the “other” group can depend on in funding their schools and places of worship is a far larger population they can solicit for donations. That leads into a somewhat wild guess on my part that a larger general population statistically means a larger population of motivated, wealthy patrons.
Another one of my perceptions (in other words, not based on formal studies I’ve found) is that collecting funds in the typical Jewish community is like shooting fish in a barrel, in that one community must support multiple Jewish non-profit enterprises, like one or more yeshiva day schools, yeshiva gedola/kollel, synagogue, mikveh, food/lodging/medical collections for the impoverished, not to mention emergency campaigns that inevitably crop up.
While some Jewish communities are blessed with some uncommonly wealthy – and charity-minded – members who provide a disproportionate percentage of the financing, less affluent Jewish communities face quite a burden.
I don’t know about Catholic schools paying better or not. I can tell you that one of my former co-workers paid less per child as her children entered the school. Let’s say tuition for one child was $5,000. When her second child enrolled it dropped to $4000 per child and when her third child entered school it dropped to $3000 per child.
@Joseph
The major difference in Catholic and Jewish fundraising is: When most Jews are in shul it is Shabbos or Yuntif and they don’t/can’t handle cash.
Catholics are in church on Sundays and carrying money. The ushers pass the collection baskets and parish members are expected to put in an envelope with a contribution for each family member. There is an envelope for the parish (local church), one for the school, another for overseas missions as well as special collections ordered by the bishop of the diocese. My Catholic friends tell me that they are expected to put in about $10 per family member every week.
ALL MEMBERS of the parish are expected to support the schools on a weekly basis. Among Jews, synagogues would not be making weekly collections for outside organizations (yeshivos, camps, etc.) they have enough trouble raising money to keep the shul going.
The local Orthodox shuls charge about $500 year dues per family including tickets for the holidays. The local Conservative synagogue charges about $1800.
Many people OOT belong to Orthodox shuls because of family history and inexpensive dues/cemetery privileges, NOT because these people are frum.@CTLAWYER Most Jews I know are in shul 7 days a week, not just on Shabbos. The ones who only comes to shul for holidays are folks who mostly handle money on Shabbos anyways.
If you belong to the church, they know who you are and that you are expected to give
The parish counts and records how much each Catholic put into the church collection basket every Sunday?
CTLAWYER,
Being run by a diocese yields economies of scale not enjoyed by yeshivos.
Exactly. And only a fraction of tithing Catholics send their children to private Catholic schools, so the ratio of contributors to users is much higher than in the frum community.
Joseph….
Ushers and deacons tally the collections each Sunday after each mass. These days, most congregants don’t put cash in the envelops, they put checks, for tax purposes, and are easily identified. The parishes send parishioners a set of envelopes for each month labeled with the type of collection. They are discretely numbered (like response cards for a simcha) and easy to track. If a family is giving less than they used to give, it might bring a call.visit from the parish priest. Not to berate them for less money, but to inquire about their well being and if they might need help. One of our secretaries at the law office told me she and her husband received such a visit about two years ago when they cut back on weekly contributions. They explained to the priest that they now had 2 children in college and that was taking their discretionary funds. The priest suggested several Catholic scholarships the kids could apply for to ease the burden.Lay teachers in our local diocese parochial schools are paid an average of $50,000 with 10 years experience plus health insurance in the Diocese plan. Unlike Yeshivos/day schools they do not get ‘free’ tuition for their children/grandchildren, they get between $500-1000 extra scholarship per child per year.
Here in the Diocese of Bridgeport, tuition drops by $500 each additional child in the family attending Catholic school. Base tuition from K-8 is $7150. High school is $18.000 so there is a major drop off in enrollment and many attend public high school.
Joseph……………..
I highly doubt that most Jews you know are in shul seven days per week. Maybe most adult Jewish males you know are in shul seven days per week. Most children and women are NOT in shul every day.I may attend minyan every day, unlike many it is NOT always in shul. There are enough adult males here at the CTL compound for Pesach and summer vacations that we often daven here (we have our own sifrei torah). At my age it is not unusual to be a shiva minyan at least once per week.
My wife and daughters only attended shul on Shabbos and Yuntif.
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