Students sent home over missing tuition

CHICAGO, March 11 (UPI) -- Students whose parents failed to pay their tuition have been dismissed from classes at a parochial high school in suburban Chicago.

Marion Catholic High School in Chicago Heights began a new quarter by sending home 100 students with past-due tuition bills, the Chicago Tribune reported Wednesday.

In total, the school is short about $450,000 in tuition money.

"Never before had we ever had so many parents with so much difficulty in paying," Marian Catholic President Judine Hilbing said.

To make matters worse, the school's telephone and Internet service was out on Monday making it difficult to determine who had paid and who hadn't, Hilbing said.

Tuition at Marian Catholic is $8,000 a year.

The Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago announced last month it was making $1 million in emergency aid available to families that lost jobs during the current school year.

Some Catholic schools are already reporting drops in enrollment for next year as parents decide to transfer their children to public schools.