Yup. I taught in a Catholic school for two years before I was laid off because of declining enrollment and the type of certification I had. I made $20,000 a year. Minimum pay for public school teachers in the same district a the time was $38,000.

I was living in a run down apartment, and I actually needed help from the congregation's St. Vincent DePaul Society to pay my gas bill one winter. The only good thing was that I had very good, fully paid health and dental insurance.

Single folks like me don't last long teaching in Catholic schools. Most of their workforce are people whose spouses make a very good living. That's the only way they can make it work.

It's cool. The ones with a masters can just move to another country and be paid more.

I went Catholic K-12 in the 60s and 70s, and think I got the best of the deal.

On the one hand, there were still lots of clergy teaching...with the occasional "lay teacher". Those tended to be 21 year old hotties who taught the art class.

Since I was post Vatican II I got to miss the Baltimore Catechism. My religious books were of the Godspell, Jesus as a Hippie, format. The word LOVE on a page with a quotation from Psalms and a picture of a flower.

What's odd about that Seattle Times article: the headline made it seem it like it was about charter schools. It had nothing to do with charter schools.

It's just a remarkable story about a school that worked hard, to get grants, re-market itself, and serve and underserve population in Seattle. Way to go St. Therese School!

Being affiliated with an organization that coddles pedophiles probably hasn't helped their enrollment figures.

Go figure. I always thought that Catholic schools were just better run than government schools.

Catholic and education are an oxymoron.