My friend, Elizabeth, forwarded me this article from the NYT that is related to schools and education. It ties in with the NPR piece that follows a bit:

"Frustration over a $25,000 Catholic School", NYT, 9/29/07:

“At $25,000 I think it just pushes an institution that is supposed to be about community toward exclusivity. But even if I could afford it, I wouldn’t send my son there. It’s unlikely there would be a lot of African-American or Hispanic children.”

She's making a big assumption there, at least in theory. But, with only two students enrolled, it's an easy enough statistic to verify.

Just about all the comments were made to the paper on condition of anonymity:

But the members of several religious orders said they wondered why the archdiocese was creating an academy-type school when that kind of educational option exists in the city’s independent Catholic schools.

It's really about raising money to cover these settlements, isn't it?

In my mother's day, I think the schools paid her to attend! I'm exaggerating but it was very affordable through the 50's.