By Karen Vance
Enquirer contributor

ANDERSON TWP. - Dennis and Lois Doyle and their four children went to Catholic school.

Now, the couple, through the donation of a $1 million endowment fund, wants to make sure students who are less fortunate can have that same education.

"The Catholic education system is unparalleled in terms of academic accomplishments. The church does a lot of things well, but education is its star, its standout," Dennis Doyle said. "And we wanted to use this great education system as a means of giving back to our community."

The donation, from the Dennis M. and Lois A. Doyle Family Foundation, will create a scholarship fund for students who graduate from one of eight Catholic K-8 schools in the inner city to attend Catholic high schools in Cincinnati.

The elementary schools, Corryville Catholic, St. Francis Seraph in Over-the-Rhine, St. Francis de Sales in Walnut Hills, Our Mother of Sorrows in Roselawn, St. Joseph in the West End, St. Boniface in Northside and Resurrection of Our Lord and Holy Family in Price Hill, all receive funds from the Catholic Inner-City Schools Education Fund.

That funding allows students below the poverty level to pay reduced tuition to attend those schools.

But students often leave the Catholic school system when they reach middle-school age because they fear they won't be able to pay Catholic high school tuition, said Eric Young, communications coordinator for the CISE Fund.

So the archdiocese recently began focusing on providing aid to help those children attend high school as well.

The Doyles' endowment plus a $1 million endowment donation from an anonymous family foundation will provide 10 $3,000 scholarships each year for four years of Catholic high school.

The average secondary education tuition is $5,500 a year, Young said. Last year, the CISE Fund awarded 12 four-year scholarships and 37 one-year partial scholarships.

Doyle said statistics show that of students who continue their Catholic education through high school, 98 percent graduate and most go to college. He wants every student to have that opportunity.

"We wanted to permanently fund the education of five new children every year," he said. "It's important they attend high school. If you just educate the kids through the eighth grade, they drop through the cracks and head back to the streets."

The local author of a book about the history of the public library will be signing books at 7 p.m. at area libraries next month.

John Fleischman, author of Free & Public: 150 Years at the Public Library of Cincinnati & Hamilton County 1853-2003, will be at the Green Township library, 6525 Bridgetown Road, on Tuesday; at the Norwood library, 4325 Montgomery Road, on April 7; and at the Blue Ash library, 4911 Cooper Road, April 8.

The book is available for purchase at all 41 library branches.

Allen Howard is on vacation. Karen Vance will write "Some Good News" until he returns April 8.

If you have a "good news" story you would like to share, e-mail her at kvance@fuse.net.