August 16, 2026 | A Case for a Catholic School
Jesus Christ: Yesterday, Today and Forever~
Currently Columbia River Catholic has a Preschool and Kindergarten using the school building on St. Thomas Aquinas’ campus. We are seeking permission from the Archdiocese to move onto First grade and beyond. We are prepared to show the Archbishop that we have the students and finances to sustain such a school. We have the parishioners and the finances in our parish family to have a school, yet the Archbishop and his delegates need to have heard from you that the support is here for a parochial school. To that end, there will be a survey sometime this Fall asking you about your level of financial support for a school, and if you have school-age kids, if you would be willing to put them in the school.
Jesus has told us that His Church is going to be around until His Second Coming (Is 9:6-7; Dn 2:44, 7:14; Lk 1:32-33; Mt 7:24, 16:18, 28:19-20). That may happen in our lifetimes, and it may happen thousands of years from now. As we plan and develop our parish family, we do so with the long view in mind. If we had a school here, how many kids’ faith, from opening day until Christ’s return, would have benefited from it? Presumably thousands, probably tens of thousands, almost all of whom aren’t born yet.
The benefits of Catholic schooling vis-à-vis government (public) schools are well documented and empirically measurable:
Higher academic achievement; fewer discipline problems; fewer classroom distractions; less bullying; much less exposure to immorality; much higher graduation rates; much higher rates of college enrollment and graduation.
Tragically, children in government schools do not learn any of this in school because it is currently against the law for their teachers to teach it. The following are some statistics from the Archdiocese of Seattle on the impact that Catholic schooling has on millennial adults (those born in 1980 or later) when compared to Catholic adults from the same generation who did not attend Catholic schools.
• Ten times more likely to attend Mass as a family
• Eight times more likely to consider religious life
• Increased life expectancy
• Less Likely to use/abuse pornography, alcohol, tobacco, and drugs
• Dramatically lower risk of suicide
• Rebound from depression 70% faster
• Less likely to commit a crime
• More likely to get and remain married
• Less likely to live in poverty
• More likely to attend college – and graduate
Yet the greatest benefit of a good Catholic education isn’t measurable – faith in Christ and a more virtuous life. Catholic schools exist to assist parents and / or grandparents in the formation of their children in the practice of the Catholic faith. In Catholic Schools, children have:
Jesus Christ; the love of God and neighbor; Truth, Goodness, and Beauty; the Communion of Saints; Daily prayer; Confessions; Mass; community service; religious retreats; 150 hours a year of religion class; instruction and modeling of the virtues; identifying and overcoming vices and sin; the spiritual and corporal works of mercy; and the hope that can only be had by knowing of Heaven and aspiring to get there.
Catholic schools do not exist to provide wealthy parents, Catholic or not, the option to keep their kids out of government schools. Nor do Catholic schools exist to provide academic excellence, although that’s desirable. Nor do Catholic schools exist to employ people. Catholic schools exist to pass on the faith in word and deed to the next generation. Therefore, all the staff and students in our Catholic school will be on mission with our mission, or they will need to find another schooling option.
If we are granted permission to have a parochial school, then over time we would outgrow our current school building at St. Thomas Aquinas. In that case, we will naturally explore the possibility of building a much bigger and more modern school building at Holy Redeemer where there is space for expansion.
I am also committed to making our school affordable. There are a few unconventional ways to approach this, and they will be fully explored. No child would be turned away for lack of funds. Ideally, I would like our school to be “free” for all our students. Here are some of those considerations:
· Parents would have to tithe to our parish to be illegible
· Staffing costs would have to be kept at a minimum, so probably more students per teacher than your typical Catholic school
· We may need to have multigrade levels under a single teacher, almost certainly at the start-up of the school as we slowly build enrollment over the years
· Our parish would have to be there financially for the school in a big way
· We would not undermine the ministry needs of our parish family by diverting too much to the school. We will not “rob Peter to pay Paul”.
We will also explore the possibility of having consecrated religious sisters teaching in our school. Unfortunately, there aren’t enough of them to staff all the Catholic schools that would love to have them. We will definitely look into this as the witness of religious sisters in the school would be huge.
Homeschoolers are welcomed! Currently we have the largest number of homeschooling students in our parish family of any parish family in the Archdiocese of Seattle. They are a huge blessing for us, contributing through volunteering and their presence at Mass and parish events all out of proportion to their numbers. Catholic adults who were homeschooled, are represented among vocations to the priesthood and religious life all out of proportion to their numbers as well. We will remain committed to supporting those parents who wish to homeschool their children by working with them to make our school, school building and campuses as helpful and accessible as possible for them. I could foresee having three tiers of students in our school: the traditional five days a week majority; homeschoolers at our school two days a week and at home taught by a parent three days a week (a homeschooling consortium); and those taught at home five days a week except for a subject that the parent can’t effectively teach, and has their child join the parochial school kids for that subject and / or for lunch and recess for the socialization.
Having a Catholic school also benefits Columbia River Catholic. Schools have drawing power. People join parishes with a Catholic school at a higher rate than those without one. I know of different people who live all over Clark County who are parishioners at St. Joseph’s because they’ve decided it’s preferable to attend Mass where their kids attend school; the same place where their friends and social network are. I personally know families that have left this parish to join St. Joseph Parish because they put their children in that school and decided to move there for the reasons just mentioned.
A word about the effect our having a Catholic school will have on the two parochial schools in Clark County: not much. The two existing parochial schools at St. Joseph and Our Lady of Lourdes Parishes have hundreds of students each. St. Joseph’s is full with a waiting list to get in. We have about 26 students from Columbia River Catholic in that school, hardly a dent in their enrollment. It is a simple fact that in the long run there would be hundreds of more kids attending a Catholic school annually because we had one than if we didn’t. Moreover, in July, 2026 the Columbian reported Clark County is the second-fastest growing county by volume in Washington and remains the fifth most populous county in the state. It is reasonable to assume that Southwest Washington will continue to grow. In the big picture, far more people will benefit from us having a Catholic school than from our two neighbors having a couple dozen less.
Every generation naturally thinks that the way things are now will be the case in the future. Of course that’s never the case, yet we embrace what we know. Imagine a future where our taxpayer dollars follow children to whatever school their parents send them to. It will happen one day. The current monopoly that atheism (which is a religious belief system) has on our tax dollars for education will end; and when it does, there will be waiting lists to get into Catholic schools.
Thank you for having read this pastor’s column and your support in having our own wonderful Catholic school. When that survey comes out, please fill it out. With faith in Jesus Christ, let us go into our future with supreme confidence in Our Lord’s ultimate victory.
In Christ the Divine Teacher,
Fr. Thomas Nathe
Fr. Nathe
