We, of course have two Catholic schools very near us at Saint Mary’s and Our Lady of Lourdes (St. Gertrude and Benedictine High Schools are not included in this new system since they are not diocesan schools).  For us one of the first things we will see is that there will no longer be “in-parish” versus “non-parish” distinctions in the tuition costs (the only distinction will now be for Catholic versus non-Catholic).  Over the next five years the assessment to most parishes will increase and the monies raised will be heavily earmarked to make tuition assistance Catholic families more readily available.  The idea is to make a Catholic school education more affordable to the average Catholic.

            You will be seeing more in the Catholic Virginian as the new system of financing our Catholic schools is implemented.  Also I will be sharing more with you about this in future letters.