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CV NEWS FEED // The Diocese of Wichita, Kansas has a stewardship program that enables tithing families to have full access to Catholic schools in the area, without having to pay tuition.
Diocesan Schools Associate Superintendent Dr. Jamie Finkeldei spoke in a phone interview with CatholicVote about the diocese’s stewardship program, which has been around since the 1980s.
He explained that stewardship “is a spirituality first” and defined it as “the grateful response of a Christian disciple who recognizes and receives God’s gifts and shares those gifts in love of God and neighbor.”
“The tuition-free program is based on the idea that everything man has is a gift from God,” Finkeldei said. “If a family is a practicing steward of the parish through donation of time, talent, and treasure (financial support), then their children can attend the parish school without paying tuition.”
He added, “You give money to the church, you go to church on a regular basis, and you volunteer at either the church or the school, then there is no tuition for your kids to attend school.”
Finkeldei said that one advantage of the program is that more Catholic children are able to receive a Catholic education. In 36 of the diocese’s 38 Catholic schools, 99% of the students are Catholic, Finkeldei said. He explained that although Wichita is the 116th-largest diocese in the country, it is the 53rd-largest Catholic school district. According to Finkeldei, 90% of the diocese’s students are on free or reduced lunch.
Stewardship informs the way the students are educated, as they are encouraged to see everything as a gift from God, Finkeldei said. The students learn that the four pillars of stewardship are prayer, service, hospitality, and formation.
“We have a robust idea of stewardship, because obviously we’re trying to help the kids learn that. So [there are] a lot of service projects and other activities that are built around that,” Finkeldei said. He later added that the schools make an effort to instill “a sense of gratitude and thankfulness to [sic] our kids about a sense of stewardship in everything that they do.”
