Michael Morrisey is the executive director of the Catholic Education Foundation. You can reach him at (913) 647-0383 or send an email to him at: mmorrisey@archkck.org.
Many of you are thinking about a spring break destination.
Or you are at your spring break destination. Or, possibly, you are on your way back from your fave (this makes me cool) spring break destination fun spot. Good for you! I know all of you are deserving of this break.
With this article I want to bring you back to reality!
I am sure you have heard the old saying: “It is just a numbers game.” If you have not, prepare yourself for a dose of CEF numbers reality!
In my young life, I have heard it said in the corporate business world, “We need to reduce our workforce”; in the small business world, “We don’t have enough business to justify that piece of equipment.” And oftentimes in the sports world, we hear: (in football) “We need to stay under the salary cap” and (in baseball and basketball) “We have set budgets to manage.” I could go on and on. The application for this saying in our daily lives is endless, both on and off the field.
It also can be said in our CEF world.
First, I want to share some CEF numbers with you. (After all, it is a numbers game).
- During the current school year, our foundation has distributed $1,155,156 to our CEF schools to provide scholarships for children in need.
- The average scholarship provided is $841. We are helping 1,373 students from 867 families. All record numbers!
- We are working through our budget process for 2014-15 and are set to increase our school allocation by 9 percent. I want to point out that the commitment to our CEF schools is not just one year. It must be sustainable from one year to the next.
- Our principals tell us that if CEF was not providing scholarship assistance, over 80 percent or 1,098- plus students would not be attending our Catholic schools.
So, it truly is a numbers game!
However, as the dose of reality sets in, it is not a game for our CEF parents and their kids. In many cases, they are not sure if they have a job from one day to the next. They are not sure when the next meal is coming. They are not sure how they are going to pay the rent, etc.
In many cases, their biggest number concern is how they are going to keep their kids in our Catholic schools.
Concluding with the numbers, our principals have identified over 200 additional kids that want to attend our Catholic schools but are not able to do so because they/we do not have the resources to allow them that opportunity.
That, my friends, is the part of the CEF numbers game we need to win!
