INDIANAPOLIS -- Two Indianapolis Catholic schools may go public if Mayor Greg Ballard and council members approve their applications to become charter schools.

Since 1948, St. Anthony's has educated thousands of elementary children in Haughville, a working-class neighborhood on Indianapolis' west side.

In recent years, the school has fallen on hard times. Low-income families are struggling to pay the $7,000 annual tuition. Ninety-eight percent of students are on free lunch or reduced lunch.

In hopes that the schools can persevere, the Archdiocese of Indianapolis applied for charter status for St. Anthony and the St. Andrew and St. Rita Academy, on the city's east side, 6News' Stacia Matthews reported.

"We think we've got a really unique way of collaborating with the city that would make Indianapolis a real innovator in helping find new ways to keep inner-city schools going," said Greg Otolski, a spokesman for the Archdiocese.

Otolski said that the downtown schools operate within the Mother Theodore Catholic Academies, which is currently struggling to operate with a combined annual deficit of $2 million to $3 million.

Church officials said the move, which would bring in more than $1 million in public funding the first year, is an investment for the future.

"If we can get them into high school, more than 95 percent of our kids graduate from Catholic high school, and almost all of these kids are going on to some kind of college," Otolski said.

If charter status is granted, the schools would have to give up their religious identities during school hours.

The Catholic Church is still working out details about covering up or removing crosses, religious artwork and statues while students are in class. During school hours, the facility would have to operate as a secular school, accountable to the public.

Otolski said there would be a public board with public meetings, and finances would be open to the public.

Outside of school hours, educators could still offer religious guidance to students.

The Archdiocese considers the plan the only realistic option to preserve the parochial pillars in the neighborhood and keep the schools' doors open.

Mayor Greg Ballard will review the application. If he approves the plan, it will go before the City-County Council for a vote.

A decision could be made as soon as the end of January.