Beginning in the last weekend of January each year, Catholic schools throughout the nation celebrate Catholic Schools’ Week. In Western Washington, this involves 71 Catholic elementary schools and high schools in the Seattle Archdiocese.

We say that our schools “celebrate” Catholic Schools’ Week instead of simply “observe” the weeklong focus because we are extremely proud of our mission, proud of our students and excited to share our important contributions to our communities.

Catholic schools are famous for teaching “the basics,” and the results are graduates of our elementary schools and high schools who are well read, persuasive writers, and great thinkers and solvers in math and science. When our students graduate from either our grade K-8 elementary schools or our grade 9-12 high schools, we make sure they are well prepared for the next phase in their lives.

But being well prepared for the next level of education is more than just being prepared in academics and study skills. Catholic school students also develop their hearts, learning about and strengthening their passion for serving others, especially the less fortunate. That is why community service is a component of the curriculums in all Catholic schools.

One objective way to demonstrate our Catholic school system’s contribution to the greater good is to look at this in dollar figures.

Catholic schools save our state millions of dollars annually, by educating 23,000 children in Western Washington alone, who if they entered the public schools would create a logistical housing nightmare and a financial problem for the state. If the average public school educates each of their students at $8,377 per child (according to the 2007 Census Bureau), adding 23,000 Catholic students to public schools stretching from Bellingham to Vancouver would cost an additional $19,267,100. Just think of how massive your taxes would increase to pay for this.

Catholic Schools’ Week is celebrated to recognize and honor the accomplishments of our students, and to promote awareness of the gifts we provide our communities, both directly and indirectly. I am proud to have chosen the profession of an educator so I could touch the minds of children, and I am even prouder as a Catholic school educator that I can also touch children’s hearts.

Dan Fitzpatrick is principal of St. Louise Parish School in Bellevue.

For more information on Catholic Schools in Western Washington, visit www.seecelebrateandlive.org/.