Catholic Education Foundation makes a Catholic education more accessible

The year was 1990. The first President George Bush was in the White House. Democrat Wallace Wilkinson was Kentucky’s governor. The number one pop song in March was Janet Jackson’s “Escapade” (“Come on baby, let’s get away . . .”) That same month, in the full flowering of legislative independence, the General Assembly, on its own volition, wrote and passed the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA), a model of public education reform that had a national impact. On the first Saturday in May, Unbridled won the Kentucky Derby for 92-year old owner Frances Genter, for whom my grandfather (Leo O’Donnell) trained horses in the 1940’s.

Sometime after that Derby, Archbishop Thomas C. Kelly held an inaugural dinner to showcase the Archdiocese of Louisville’s Catholic schools. It wasn’t supposed to be a fundraiser and indeed it wasn’t—the event lost $25,000.00. Fewer than 100 people attended.

CEF dinner makes a Catholic education more accessible

If every journey begins with the first step, that inauspicious beginning had its 34th renewal last night at the Galt House hotel with quite a different outcome. The Catholic Education Foundation’s annual “Salute to Catholic School Alumni” drew 1,300 people—a sell-out—that netted the Foundation a record $1.6 million dollars largely for tuition for families that want to obtain an academically superior, faith-filled education for their children in a Catholic elementary school throughout the Archdiocese’s 24 counties but who otherwise cannot afford the full cost. Both the crowd and the proceeds are records that broke the previous year’s totals which exceeded the year before that—an extraordinary streak that began in 2009. The yearly gala is the largest, in terms of net dollars raised in one night, of any philanthropy in the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

The remarkable success of the endeavor is due primarily to two individuals—former Archbishop Joseph Kurtz and Richard Lechleiter, a retired executive from the Kindred company who became the Foundation’s President in 2016. If the Archbishop was the head coach with the inspiring pep talks and overall game plan, Mr. Lechleiter has been the offensive coordinator calling the plays on the field. The 2016 dinner, Coach Lechleiter’s first, netted $750,000, an amount that was doubled last year in only his seventh year at the helm.

CEF dinner also honors notable alum

In addition to the fundraising, the dinner serves as a sort of huge parish homecoming to honor local alum of Catholic schools in our hometown who, in the words of my sainted Mother, “have made something of themselves.” Last evening’s festivities honored business executives Matthew W. Ott, W. James Lintner, and Mariah Weyland Gratz; a long-time pastor, Rev. J. Wayne Jenkins; a commercial real estate entrepreneur, Charles D. Tewell; and a Court of Appeals judge, Annette C. Karem. Appropriately, an “Outstanding Catholic Educator” is also recognized. This year it was Julie M. Domzalski, a first grade teacher at the St. Margaret Mary parish school, a vocation she has pursued for 34 years—the identical age of the event honoring her. According to a profile of Ms. Domzalski in “The Record,” the Archdiocesan weekly newspaper, the honoree loves teaching reading and religion, has four sisters, all of whom are teachers, and is married to a theology teacher at North America’s preeminent Catholic High School for boys (or anybody else), Trinity High School. God bless our teachers in our community’s 40 Catholic grade schools and nine high schools. Soli Deo Gloria.

Klaus Mittelsten: Gave everything he had to his Trinity students and we loved him back

Last school year, the CEF awarded over $8 million dollars to 3,700 students from 2,000 families. For the ninth consecutive year, no qualified applicants were turned down for assistance. Calling it a nine-year (K-eighth grade) investment, Mr. Lechleiter wants to extend the Foundation’s mission to address a serious need to help families pay for Catholic high school tuition especially for those schools in less-affluent sections of Jefferson County. “We want to make sure,” he says, “that the kids we help in grade school can become part of the 95% of our students who go to college after they graduate from one of our high schools.” Like Kansas City Chiefs Coach Andy Reid who wants to win another consecutive Super Bowl, the tenacious Mr. Lechleiter is never content with the status quo. He intends to grow the CEF’s endowment to $100,000,000 (it is currently $36 million) and follows closely the school choice efforts in the legislature. If a choice amendment is ratified by the voters, and tuition tax credits become constitutional, “the sky’s the limit as to how many thousands more children we can help. Our Catholic schools will be full and we will open new ones,” he predicts.

An ambitious plan to be sure, but your humble columnist would never bet on Richard Lechleiter to place. Remember the CEF’s motto: “The Answer is YES!”

Bob Heleringer is a Louisville attorney and a graduate of Our Lady of Lourdes grade school, Trinity High School, and Xavier University. He can be reached at helringr@bellsouth.net.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Catholic Education Foundation funds Kentucky private school options