Catholic Schools

There has been considerable comment and criticism of President and Mrs. Clinton’s decision to send their daughter Chelsea to a non-public school. The principal focus of the criticism is that the President is providing a non-public education to his daughter that is not available to low-income families.

In the Los Angeles area, however, we can be proud that a good non-public education is available to most everyone, even low-income families. We have one of the largest and finest non-public school systems in the country right here in the Los Angeles area. The system includes 85 primary and 13 secondary school located in the inner-city and low-income areas of Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. This school system is run by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles under the leadership of Cardinal Roger Mahony.

More than 30,000 young people from low-income families, including mostly minority students, attend these inner-city schools every year. A year’s tuition at one of these schools costs a family about $1,100 for a full year at a primary school and $2,200 a year at a secondary school. In addition, these schools report that 93% of the students graduate from secondary school and of these 86% go on to college.

Sadly these non-public schools currently have 5,000 empty seats, which need to be filled by children of families who want their children to have a better chance, but just can’t afford it.

To meet this need, the cardinal established an education foundation in 1988. To date, many good citizens and businesses have strongly supported this need and opportunity with contributions. As the co-chairman of the BASICS Campaign to solicit businesses for help in filling these empty seats, I am proud of our non-public system and what it does for Los Angeles, particularly in the inner cities, where it is needed most.

What we need is a public system that meets the challenge of the non-public system so that all of our young people have the same opportunity provided to more than 30,000 students here in our Los Angeles-area inner cities. In addition, we need the funds to support students in our non-public system so that all people of all economic levels have a choice to give their children, and our future leaders, the best possible education.

ROBERT H. SMITH

Pasadena