38 THE QUEENS COURIER • AUGUST 22, 2019 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
back to school
‘Futures in Education’ builds road to
success for Catholic school students
BY MCGEORGE SORENSEN
For many families across Brooklyn
and Queens, sending their children to
a Catholic grammar school may be an
impossible task because they have low
incomes and cannot aff ord the yearly
tuition, which runs into thousands of
dollars annually.
Th at’s where Futures in Education
comes in.
Th e nonprofi t organization operated
by the Diocese of Brooklyn and Queens
holds all kinds of fundraisers each year
to help parents across the diocese aff ord
a Catholic education for their children.
Futures in Education also establishes
partnership with private donors and
organizations to enable schools to have
updated curriculums and the proper
tools needed to educate their students,
and to assist teachers in refi ning their
craft through training programs.
Th ere are a litany of ways private
donors can contribute to Catholic education
Here’s some facts about Catholic schools
• More than 1.8 million students attend
Catholic schools in 176 dioceses across
the United States.
• Approximately 20.8 percent of students
are racial minorities, 17.4% percent of
students are Hispanic and 6.5 percent
of students did not identify to a particular
ethnicity.
• In the United States, 349,139 Catholic
school students are not Catholic,
accounting for 19 percent of total enrollment.
• Catholic high schools across the U.S.
have a graduation rate of 99.2 percent.
• Based on the average public school
per pupil cost of $11,454 nationwide,
Catholic schools save taxpayers about
$21 billion a year.
• Approximately 97.4 percent of all faculty
are lay women and men. More than
150,000 teachers are employed full-time
in Catholic elementary, middle and secondary
schools. Th e national average
staffi ng ratio is 13 students per teacher.
• Th e Diocese of Brooklyn is among
the top 10 dioceses and archdioceses
nationwide in school enrollment.
• Of the 6,352 Catholic schools in the
United States, approximately 1,872 of
them have waiting lists for admission.
Source: National Catholic Educational
Association Photo via Facebook/Futures in Education
through the Futures in Education.
One way is the “Be an Angel to a
Student” Program, in which an individual
can help cover the cost of a Catholic
school student’s tuition every year starting
at $1,500. Angels also get to know the
students they are helping by exchanging
notes, cards and drawings; all Angels
receive progress reports on how they’re
students are performing in class.
Each Angel gets to meet their students
at the Angel Reception, an annual celebration
held by Futures in Education.
Th e Angels are also invited to attend
school plays, recitals and graduation ceremonies.
“We continue to be hard at work ensuring
that every deserving family requesting
fi nancial tuition assistance receives
it through our Be an Angel to a Student
and other scholarship programs,” Msgr.
Jamie Gigantiello, vicar for development
for the Diocese of Brooklyn, said in a
December 2016 letter. “However, it is
not enough to look back on only the
successes of the year. Instead, we must
also focus on those students who we
were unable to assist and fi nd additional
donors willing to join us in support of
this cause.”
During the 2015-16 school year,
Futures in Education doled out more
than $7 million in scholarships to 4,873
students. Th e median annual household
income of their scholarship recipients is
$28,000, with 31% of families living at or
below the poverty level.
Futures in Education also works to
connect Catholic grammar school alumni
with their alma maters, and young
executives to schools around the diocese,
to further increase support for Catholic
education.
Individual donations of any amount,
as always, are also accepted.
To learn more about the Futures in
Education program, or to contribute
to the cause, visit www.futuresineducation.
org.
Photo via Facebook/Futures in Education
/www.futuresineduca-tion.org
/www.futuresineduca-tion.org
/www.futuresineduca-tion.org
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