For parents at the St. Joseph parochial school on Staten Island, bingo is a godsend. Tuition for the 2005-6 school year is $600 for the year. Unlike other Roman Catholic schools in New York City, over a third of the school’s operating costs are covered by bingo. Less than half are covered by tuition. The Archdiocese of New York recommends that 80% of the school’s operating costs be supplied by tuition, while having another 10% come from bingo and another 10% from church collection plates.

In this blue-collar neighborhood, the $2700 tuition fees that are the standard in other parts of town would force parents to make significant financial sacrifices and would simply keep some of the less fortunate out of the school entirely. It’s true that on Wednesdays, the children feel the crunch. They’re unable to eat lunch in the cafeteria, because that’s where the bingo games are, and their school play yard is filled with cars, meaning they need to stay indoors at recess time.

Parents also have to do their part to keep tuition down. Parents have to assist at ten bingo sessions each year, including summertime sessions and Christmas sessions. Parents who opt not to do their part in the bingo operations have to pay $2,500, over four times the price. The reasoning is simple; the school needs the volunteers. While Msgr. John Servididio, the pastor of the Church of St. Joseph, is not fully comfortable with the bingo games, he feels that they are completely necessary to keep tuition down and to keep parents, many of whom are struggling financially, afloat.