new business model for inner-city Catholic schools

From Laura Vanderkam in Reason...

Her report starts with the story of 14-year-old Tiffany Adams, a student at 1-year-old Christ the King Prep School in Newark, NJ.

...five school days a month, Adams skips the uniform and dons business attire....

...part of a recently formed national network of Catholic schools that combine school and work. In the process, these “Cristo Rey” (Spanish for “Christ the King”) schools have stumbled on a new business model for private urban education—one that asks students like Adams to largely pay their own way....

This business model was born of necessity. But...the benefits go beyond financial sustainability....

Activists sometimes like to blame poor school performances on a lack of funding, but this argument is simply laughable in Newark...[which] spends $21,295 on each of its 41,857 pupils. Across America, the average school spends about half that. Costs are often higher in cities, but the New York City schools spend just $14,951 per pupil, according to the Census Bureau; Washington, D.C., spends $13,446....

Cool!