HISTORY OF THE CATHOLIC EDUCATION FOUNDATION
From Dream to Reality
by Sister M. Joanne Wittensburg, SND
The Catholic Education Foundation (CEF), began with a dare. In 1986, Cardinal (then Archbishop) Roger Mahony, mindful of the great tradition of Catholic schools as well as the escalating costs which were making it increasingly difficult for parents to continue to send their children there, challenged a group of Los Angeles business leaders: “Let’s do something significant. Let’s not get pessimistic.” The response was the Catholic Education Foundation.
During the following year, members of the city’s business and philanthropic leadership met regularly with the Cardinal to translate this vision into reality. Ronald Boeddeker, William Close, Richard Ferry, William Huston, Kathleen McCarthy, Peter Mullin and Richard Riordan are among those still active in the Foundation.
The purpose of the new Foundation was threefold: to maintain that the quality education offered by Catholic schools continued, to make them as affordable as possible, and to particularly ensure that the poor and disadvantaged were included, regardless of religious affiliation. Richard Riordan served as the Foundation’s first president.
The Board considered tuition assistance the first priority, so the Tuition Awards Program (TAP) launched in the 1988-89 school year. Awards would be distributed to students in the five Pastoral Regions according to financial need, satisfactory academic performance and good personal character. The Foundation received 740 applications the first year. Unfortunately this number exceeded the $250,000 allocated. Trustee Richard Riordan wrote a check for an additional $250,000 so that the financial needs of all the applicants could be met with a total distribution of $500,000.
Eighteen months later, the Foundation launched its fundraising campaign. By focusing the attention of prospective donors on the advantages of a Catholic education, particularly for the poor and disadvantaged children living in the inner-city areas of the Archdiocese, the Board set forth to raise an endowment fund. Those initial endowment funds have grown to almost $140 million today!
Throughout its 20 year history, TAP has continued to be the cornerstone of the CEF’s efforts to offer tuition assistance to financially deserving students attending Archdiocesan schools. The Foundation’s initial allocation of $500,000 in 1988 for 740 students has increased to $8.3 million for the 2007-2008 school year and the number of students throughout the Archdiocese receiving assistance has grown to over 7,000. Over 60 percent of all tuition awards are made to children attending the poorest schools that are subsidized by the Archdiocese.
The Foundation’s tuitions awards have grown, but so has the tuition for a Catholic education. In 1987, the average tuition for parish elementary schools was $847 and $1399 for Archdiocesan high schools. Today the parent(s) of a child attending a parish elementary school located in the inner-city pays and average of $2,300 and an inner-city high school student pays $4,800 in tuition. As a result, the Foundation’s elementary school tuition award of $1,000 and a high school award of $2,000 cover only about 30 percent of the tuition bill. The balance of tuition is paid by parents, parishes, school fundraisers and other resources. ...more