Texans for Parental Choice in Education

NorthJersey.com tells another sad story about a Catholic school closing because of finances.

Highlights:

Paterson Diocese announced [Paterson Catholic School, a] 43-year-old institution would close.

Officials told Paterson Catholic’s 293 students … that their school would be closing at the end of the school year, citing a $6 million debt, a $925,000 budget shortfall this year, a steadily declining enrollment and a low tuition collection rate.

Paterson Catholic would be the 18th Catholic school to shut in Paterson Diocese in the last 10 years.

Torres said city parents who send their children to parochial schools should be able to recoup a portion of their property taxes through a school voucher or tax credit.

“You can’t pay $7,000 or $8,000 in property taxes and turn around and pay $5,000 or $6,000 to send your child to parochial school,” he said.

While 24 new Catholic schools opened nationally during the 2009-10 school year, 174 consolidated or closed, according to the National Catholic Educational Association.

This entry was posted on April 25, 2010 at 8:37 pm and is filed under School Choice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.