Education: How Much Is a Nun Paid?

As its price for supporting federal aid to education, the U.S. Roman Catholic hierarchy demands low-cost loans to parochial schools. The nation’s first Catholic President refuses, and thus far both sides have argued the constitutional principles involved. The unexamined side of the debate is the actual financial state of Catholic parochial schools. Do they really need federal aid? Where do their funds come from? How much does a nun make?

The prosperity of parochial school systems varies considerably, but there is a consistent pattern. In any typical parish, the priest has the duty and obligation of providing schooling. He raises the operating expenses chiefly from the Sunday collection plate, getting contributions that would make almost any Protestant minister envious; he charges little or no tuition. Going heavily for him are two assets: he can get nun teachers at a board, room and stipend cost of only $650-$1,250 a year, and he can often tap diocesan funds for loans for building.

On this basis, plus fierce parental pressure since World War II, U.S. Catholic schools, which form the world’s biggest private school system, have grown much faster than public schools. Catholic schools now enroll 5,300,000 students—or 12% of all U.S. schoolchildren. Yet about 5,000,000 Catholic youngsters are still in public schools, including two-thirds of all those of high school age (the graduates of 10,287 Catholic grade schools are swamping 2,428 Catholic high schools).

According to Means. A prime example is Philadelphia, where in 1952 the late Cardinal O’Hara, a stern foe of federal aid, launched a building campaign that gave Catholics enough schools to handle about 85% of their children (which is 39% of all Philadelphia’s children). The schools charge no tuition, but collect money according to means. Poor parishioners with many children may give nothing at all. For building loans. O’Hara set up an archdiocesan “central bank.” Rich parishes put up the cash at going interest rates; poor ones borrow it. with archdiocesan help if necessary. The only reason that Philadelphia’s Catholics want federal aid is “on principle”—and to match any advantage that public schools get.

The same goes for other big archdioceses, such as Chicago, where Msgr. William E. McManus sees “no need for federal aid to Chicago, public or parochial,” though he adds that “if it comes, we ought to get the crumb.” McManus’ schools handle 34% of all Chicago schoolchildren, owe more than $40 million. They stay afloat by central-bank deals and an average annual tuition charge of $25 in grade schools and $225 in high schools. “Come hell or high water,” says Msgr. McManus, “we’re going to have 125 new classrooms next fall, no matter what they do in Washington.”

“Triple Tax.” In the New York archdiocese. Cardinal Spellman. who is the most outspoken advocate of federal loans, years ago set up one of the world’s most efficient church business offices. Refunding the entire parish-level debt, he saved millions by shifting to commercial paper. Catholic schools educate about 26% of all New York City children at “substantially” less cost than public schools pay. Spellman’s recent fund drive for new high schools was oversubscribed by $15 million. But in New York’s burgeoning suburbs. where parochial schools have to expand fast, parents are now expected to give roughly $800 for new Catholic construction. Many also pay high public school taxes, and federal aid to public education, says one church spokesman, “would be nothing less than a triple tax.”

56 to a Teacher. Parochial schools are in the most trouble in bulging suburbs, depressed communities and “federally impacted areas,” where an influx of servicemen yields special federal aid for public schools but not Catholic schools. In the Navy town of Norfolk, Va., for example, many parochial schools have three shifts. St. Pius X School opened in 1956. now has 900 students at a ratio of 56 to one teacher; many parents have put children in the better-staffed public schools. Especially in areas where Catholics are a small minority, as in Georgia, a possible “triple tax” seems the last straw. Says one Atlanta priest dispiritedly: “I’m afraid finances are going to rule us out of the education business.”

The big problem of parochial school management is finding nun teachers—”the only form of slave labor still permitted in this country,” quips Spokane, Wash.’s Diocesan Superintendent Father Norman Triesch. Already 40,000 lay teachers form 40% of the Catholic teaching force, and in five years they will probably be in a majority. Their pay runs to three or four times what a nun teacher costs, yet is enough lower than public school pay to make them hard to recruit. These rising costs put an extra strain on the collection plate—and spur on such typically Catholic fund-raising gimmicks as bingo, raffles, cake sales and carnivals.

Supernatural Help. Where the pinch is worst. Catholic schools save money by dropping grades, generally beginning with the first. “We have supernatural help going for us,” says Spokane’s Father Triesch. The help has not saved Spokane from dropping the first grade in at least three schools, planning to drop second grade in one. and starting a “parish loyalty” screening system that gives priority to parents who dig deepest. In suburban Greenhills, Ohio, near Cincinnati, Rosary Parish school is also dropping first grade in the face of doubled enrollment, the loss of five lay teachers and “almost insufferable financial problems.”

As for federal aid. says Msgr. Frederick G. Hochwalt, education director of the National Catholic Welfare Conference: “It’s the token of being part of U.S. education, our plea for recognition.” Should Catholics get aid. Hochwalt figures that it would add 15% to the Kennedy school bill. The loans, say most bishops, would go to diocesan building-loan funds, freeing cash for lay teachers. Failing aid, says Chicago’s McManus, “we will just have to further systematize contributions, in the nature of assessments and taxes.” In any case, says Hochwalt, “it’s not so much the amount of federal money as the principle. In many ways, the red tape involved makes a Government loan less desirable than prime-rate borrowing. And there is nothing wrong with the church’s credit.”