In Honor of Pope John Paul II, the Chartwell Trust Launches Campaign to Narrow Resource Gap" Faced by Catholic Schools

Are Catholic Schools viewed as the backbone of the Catholic Church or are they money losing subsidiaries? Everyday in the newspaper are accounts of scores of Catholic Schools closing their doors. It isnt that Catholics dont prefer a Catholic education for their children. It isnt that the performance of Catholic Schools is disappointing. It comes down to one overriding issue: lack of resources.

(PRWEB) April 10, 2005 -- Are Catholic Schools viewed as the backbone of the Catholic Church or are they money losing subsidiaries?

Everyday in the newspaper are accounts of scores of Catholic Schools closing their doors. It isnt that Catholics dont prefer a Catholic education for their children. It isnt that the performance of Catholic Schools is disappointing. It comes down to one overriding issue: lack of resources.

With a much higher proportion of lay teachers and less support and lower priority from parishes due to financial pressures, Catholic Schools have no choice but to raise tuitions so high that they have become unaffordable for average American families. In addition, the resource gap" between public and Catholic schools is substantial and growing.

Catholic School teachers receive on average about half the salary and benefits of public schools teachers.

While public school administrators complain about lack of resources, their facilities oftentimes dwarf those available for Catholic school students. No music teachers, having to borrow public school gyms, lack of science labs, libraries, books, computers and foreign language programs are more the rule than the exception.

Despite these resource gaps", numerous studies show that Catholic school students score consistently higher across all demographic groups and particularly well in low income urban areas. But as tuition escalates and the resource gap" widens, families have little choice but to leave and schools that have run for generations are no more.

The Chartwell Trust, an education charitable organization, has launched a campaign to reduce this resource gap. Because of Pope John Paul II's love of athletics and facility with nine foreign languages, Chartwell will fund Catholic school athletic equipment purchases and help transform computer labs into language labs by funding innovative software programs. It will also support Christmas bonus programs for Catholic School teachers.

Because the Chartwell Trust is a family managed charitable organization with no bureaucracy, at least 97% of any contributions will spent directly on these programs. Carl Delfeld is President of the global advisory firm Chartwell Partners and represented the United States on the Executive Board of Directors of the Asian Development Bank.

Of course, the heart of the Catholic School tradition is a strong emphasis on spiritual and character development, but without more private resources, without action right now, the alarming trend of school closures will continue. We need to renew our commitment to the growth of a well equipped affordable Catholic school option for families.

For more information about he Chartwell Trust or to make a contribution, please contact Carl Delfeld, Chartwell Trust, 8430 Lauralwood, Colorado Springs, CO 80919 or call (719) 264-1503.

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