Catholic social teaching (CST) insists that everyone has an inalienable right to an education adapted to their abilities and culture, preparing them for social participation and unity. It teaches that the human person is both sacred and social and that institutions must enhance human dignity. This presentation examines how these ideals confronted educational policies in the Kingdom of Hungary between 1849 and 1918. Piarist schools, created to offer free Christian education to poor boys, operated under imperial laws that repeatedly imposed tuition to exclude "undeserving" pupils. Joseph II's reforms, later revived in the 1849 "Entwurf," introduced compulsory tuition alongside other centralizing measures, prompting resistance and steep declines in enrolment. Throughout the latter half of the nineteenth century, government decrees raised fees and required payment to royal tax authorities, while parish councils tried to protect poorer students through exemptions and subsidies. In Kecskemét, for example, the Piarist school that had offered free tuition was forced to levy fees in the 1850s; local protests led to partial abolition, yet imperial ministries continued to insist on standardized charges. Subsequent resolutions oscillated between nominal and substantial fees, underscoring how education became a fiscal tool. By tracing these debates, the paper argues that Piarist schools functioned as laboratories where CST's ideals of human dignity, solidarity and subsidiarity clashed with imperial fiscal priorities. The tension between free education and tuition illustrates how Catholic institutions both contested and reproduced social hierarchy, offering insights for current discussions about justice and access.