“Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the Kingdom of heaven belongs.”

- Matthew 19:14

Securing the future of Catholic Schools

Just as a skyscraper must be built on a strong foundation, so too must a human being.

Elementary school is where that foundation is formed.

Help us build an everlasting foundation with a gift toward the Catholic Elementary Schools’ Endowment.

$17,280: average cost to educate at public schools in the US

$5,800: average cost to educate at Catholic schools in the US

Yet, Catholic schools…

  1. Achieve higher standardized test scores in reading and math;

  2. Close the achievement gap better for minority students, and

  3. Have higher graduation rates

…than public schools.

A quick note about the significant difference between the cost to educate in public schools versus Catholic schools. The CTE is kept much lower in Catholic schools because teachers, staff, and administrators are paid significantly lower salaries than their counterparts in public schools, usually because they have a strong sense of mission to serve their community. For comparison, the average teacher salary at public schools in the US is $71,699 while the average at Catholic schools is $46,590; that’s a difference of $25,109! Additionally, many Catholic schools are unable to offer the same level of services available at a public school (e.g. speech therapy, one-to-one teaching for students with significant learning needs, etc). Think of this, though: what if Catholic schools had the resources to close the salary gap and provide other essential services? If Catholic schools are outperforming when their CTE is one third that of public schools, imagine what is possible if their CTE was two thirds.