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Rising Tuition Straps Parents: Cost of a Parochial-School Education Keeps Rising

Posted on: Friday, 19 May 2006, 15:07 CDT

By Sheena Dooley, The News-Sentinel, Fort Wayne, Ind.

May 19--Kris Behringer worries about the future. With one son already enrolled at Suburban Bethlehem Lutheran School, where tuition has increased in recent years, money is tight. And, within the next two years, two of his siblings will join him at the parochial school, further stretching the family's budget.

"It's already getting hard for us," said Behringer, a stay-home mother. "We are careful about how we spend our money. We have to budget what we are doing."

To offset some of the added cost, Behringer recently took a part-time job.Also, the family forgoes vacations and other extras to save money. And they are not alone.

Faced with teacher pay increases and skyrocketing insurance and heating costs, Allen County's parochial schools have raised tuition as much as $300 a year in the last five years. And there doesn't appear to be an end in sight, as similar increases are planned for next year. That has left families scraping to come up with money for their children's education or leaving the private school system altogether.

Since the 2002-03 school year, enrollment at Indiana's Catholic schools has dropped 11 percent, while their Lutheran counterparts have lost 35 percent of their students. During those same years, public school enrollment grew 3 percent, according to Indiana Department of Education figures.

"The more tuition rises, the more students we are going to lose," said Michelle Hittie, superintendent of schools for the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend. "Those who truly want to stay, we will find a way to keep them in our schools."

Hittie would not disclose tuition rates and increases for the last five years for area Catholic schools. She would only say elementary tuition ranges from $1,500 to $3,000 a year.

Lutheran Schools of Indiana Superintendent David Ebeling could not be reached. However, administrators at Suburban Bethlehem and Concordia Lutheran High School said costs have similarly increased for them.

Richard Brune, principal at Suburban Bethlehem, said in the last five years, his school has boosted tuition by about $100 a year. Next year, total costs for parents will reach $3,125. That money helps pay for a portion of health insurance increases, which range between 7 percent to 18 percent each year, and heating costs. The church picks up the rest of the added expenses.

"Parents have been understanding," Brune said. "They know everything is costing them more so they know it costs us more."

At Concordia, increases have been greater. According to the school's Web site, parents who belong to the church spent about $5,500 in tuition and fees this year. David Widenhofer, executive director at the school, said tuition increases by 3 percent to 5.5 percent each year, which falls in line with area Catholic high schools.

Officials from Bishop Dwenger and Bishop Luers high schools said in the last five years, parents have seen $200 to $300 increases, compared with $75 in prior years. Most of that money was funneled into teacher salaries, which Bishop John D'Arcy pushed for because Catholic schools paid teachers less than their public counterparts.

Dwenger, Luers, Concordia and Suburban Bethlehem officials said that as tuition has increased, so has financial assistance for families. That aid reaches from 20 percent to 70 percent of families, depending on the school. Income levels determine whether families qualify, and those vary by school, officials said.

"We are making it work year by year," said Noelle Brennan, who has two children at Suburban Bethlehem.

"It's expensive, but so is a brand-new, huge house."

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Copyright (c) 2006, The News-Sentinel, Fort Wayne, Ind.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: The News-Sentinel (Fort Wayne, Ind.)

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