According to the Kansas City Jewish Chronicle, “Cristo Rey Kansas City. sponsored by the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth, may be a Catholic school, but its mission of educating teens from low-income families has inspired some in the Jewish community to help.” Cristo Rey Kansas City provides a Catholic, college prep education enhanced by an innovative corporate work study program to culturally diverse students with economic need.
US Catholic – quotes from article on re-inventing Catholic schools
The Cristo Rey Schools Network is another organization serving working class families who can’t afford hefty tuition for a Catholic education. Cristo Rey schools rely heavily on fundraising, but they are unique in several ways.
The schools enroll mainstream students, not academic superstars. There is no academic admission test. In fact, if applicants to a Cristo Rey school are already performing at a high academic level, administrators will often refer them to a college prep school.
And school staff do not look just for Catholic students.
“We are doing it because we are Catholic, not because they are Catholic,” Robert Birdsell, president of the network, says. “We are doing it to serve the less fortunate, to break the cycle of poverty.”
But perhaps the most singular element of a Cristo Rey education is that the students themselves help pay the bills.
Cristo Rey students are out on a job site every week, and in return local businesses and corporations support the school. It costs about $10,000 a year per student, and families make a contribution of $1,600 toward the cost of tuition. The remainder is covered by the students’ wages.
What is Cristo Rey?
Cristo Rey Kansas City (cristoreykc.org) is a member of the Cristo Rey Network, (cristoreynetwork.org.) a national association of high schools modeled after Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Chicago. The Cristo Rey Network, which was founded in 2001, has several schools in cities from LA to New York.
