 |
February 2006 |
 |
Put Catholic school principals, teachers on top tier of givers
|
| |
| |
|
|
Each year our family receives three annual fund appeals from Catholic schools. Two are from my husband’s and my high school alma maters and one is from our children’s grade school. Part of the annual fund campaign for all three schools involves listing all of the donors to the previous year’s campaign. Donors are divided into categories, divided by increments of $250 or so, in order that potential donors can see how much others gave the previous year.
For our high school campaigns, Bill and I know a fair number of the donors. For our children’s grade school, we know just about everyone on the list. While I read those lists every year, I always feel a bit uncomfortable about it, like I’m peeking into someone’s bank account.
Each year, when I look at the lists, I wonder where they fit with Jesus’ teaching that when giving alms, we shouldn’t let our left hand know what our right hand is doing. I look at the people at the top of the list, those in the over-$5,000 range, and those at the bottom, in the under-$100 category, and I wonder which individuals are the modern-day equivalent of the rich man and the widow who go to the temple to give an offering. Jesus tells his followers the widow who gave mere pennies is blessed by God because she gave from her need while the rich man gave from his surplus.
Should institutions that base themselves on the teachings of Christ publish a Who’s Who of giving? The answer isn’t so simple. In order for Catholic schools to survive and flourish, they are dependent upon the good will of donors. If a little bit of peer pressure or keeping up with the Joneses causes someone to add another “0” to the final number in their donation, don’t the kids benefit? I appreciate the generosity of those folks on the top of the list. I know without them, my children wouldn’t have nearly as many resources in their school — from newer computers to newer textbooks. And human nature being what it is, we often take our cue on how much we should give by looking at our neighbors.
I admit this year, for example, I looked at the tier above where Bill and I were listed and noted a family who I know is struggling financially. Bill and I had a moment of guilty lip biting. “If they can give that, we can give more.” So, for us, the list worked. We’ll give a little more next year.
Perhaps, though, if we are to keep the tier system in our Catholic schools annual fund appeals, there is one tier we should put at the very top, above even the $5,000-level. Catholic school teachers, with their decision to work in Catholic, rather than public schools, are in essence each donating more than $10,000 per year to the school. The average first-year teacher salary for a Milwaukee Public School teacher is about $32,400. The average salary for a new archdiocesan teacher is $22,500. With principals, and more experienced teachers, the gap grows. The overall average salary of Milwaukee Public School teachers is about $50,000, while the overall average for archdiocesan
teachers is $32,000. Catholic school
principals average $49,000, while their Milwaukee Public School counterparts average about $35,000 more than that.
Catholic school teachers and principals choose to sacrifice salary for the privilege of being in a school where they can pray with students, where they can celebrate the Eucharist, where Advent, Lent and Ordinary Time are seasons talked about as much as fall, winter and spring. They trade in the possibility of a 2006 model car for the opportunity to carry on a 2,006-year-old tradition.
If Catholic schools paid their teachers the equivalent of their public school counterparts, the corresponding hikes in tuition would price many Catholic families out of the schools. Catholic educators take a hit on their own family finances so that more families can afford Catholic education.
This is not to suggest we simply tack the names of principals and teachers to the top tier of giving as our way of saying “thank you” and therefore excuse ourselves from working to give them just salaries. The lower salaries of Catholic schools mean we miss out on many excellent Catholic teachers who must teach in a public school simply to pay their bills. As a worldwide church, we need to find ways to pay those that serve our church a fair wage for doing so. When we do, the pool of qualified applicants will grow even larger.
In the meantime, however, we, as church, can recognize that those who work for the church — especially those who work for our schools — do so at great personal sacrifice. Whether or not their names appear at the top of the annual fund campaign, we can remember that in choosing to teach in a Catholic school, they have chosen to put service of the Lord ahead of the many things they could buy with a higher salary.
Thousands of teachers, hard at work around the country, around the world, are spreading Jesus’ Gospel, without being noted as platinum level donors, or even archangels or saints. Like the widow in the time of Jesus, they give without calling attention to themselves. They are blessed.
(Scobey-Polacheck and her husband Bill have two sons, Jacob and Liam, and a daughter, Jamie. They belong to SS. Peter and Paul and St. Monica parishes. Scobey-Polacheck welcomes dialog regarding her column. E-mail her at <ascobey@hotmail.com>.) |
|
