Collected funds will go to tuition assistance programs
Catholic parishes in the Washington Archdiocese will be required to direct a significantly larger portion of their offertories next year toward education funding, according to policy changes released this week.
Parishes that do not already support a school will give 9 percent of donations to educational assistance beginning in July 2010, while parishes that do support a school will give 3 percent. In past years, all parishes contributed 2 percent of offerings to K-12 education.
“It has to do with accountability for our schools, and understanding that everyone in the Catholic community has the responsibility to pass along the faith, and that includes supporting the schools,” said Susan Gibbs, a spokeswoman for the archdiocese that encompasses the District of Columbia as well as Montgomery, Prince George’s, Calvert, Charles and St. Mary’s counties in Maryland.
How the larger sum of money is spent will change, as well, Gibbs said. While past collections have been used to support the operation of struggling schools, the money now will go toward tuition assistance for students.
“We’ll be allowing more families to send children to our schools, as opposed to subsidizing empty schools,” Gibbs said, explaining that schools will receive money to attract students before school starts, instead of while balancing books at the end of the year.
The changes are part of a collection of new policies aimed at strengthening Catholic education in the wake of declining enrollments and school closings.
Since 2001, enrollment in the archdiocese has fallen nearly 14 percent to just over 29,000 students during last school year. In 2008, the archdiocese closed seven D.C. elementary schools and turned them over to Center City Public Charter Schools.
In the neighboring Archdiocese of Arlington, enrollment at Catholic schools has remained steady at about 18,000 students in grades K-12 since mid-decade, despite the openings of several new facilities.
The amount to be given in tuition assistance is decided annually by a council of priests, according to a spokeswoman. Each parish then is assessed an amount to contribute based on its operating income, meaning larger parishes contribute more.
