School Choice
Norman Roberts
April 07, 2009
"Parents--the first and most important educators--have a fundamental right to choose the education best suited to the needs of their children, including public, private, and religious schools." USCCB Faithful Citizenship (72), November 2007
Catholics lost an important skirmish last month in Washington. So did the nation. When congress voted to end the city´s school voucher program, they did so despite an official analysis showing significantly better academic progress in children who participated in the program compared to students who remained in D.C. public schools. Washington schools have long been known as among the nations poorest performing. They are also among the most expensive. According to The Heritage Foundation the district spends more per pupil than any state, and far more than the national average. The vouchers are each worth a little more than half what the district spends per student. Ninety percent of the students receiving the vouchers are black. Nine percent are Hispanic. All are from families that could not otherwise afford private schools.
It amounts to an ongoing national scandal. In the last half century there have been just four school age children in the White House. The Kennedy children were too young. Amy Carter famously attended public schools but had difficulty making friends and couldn´t be allowed outside during recess because the playground was too near the street. Chelsea Clinton went to the prestigious and private Sidwell Friends School, as do the Obama children. President Clinton opposed vouchers. Two children now at Sidwell will apparently be forced to leave under legislation President Obama has signed.
Opponents of government subsidies for private schools offer objections that generally fall into one of several categories: they are constitutionally suspect, they undermine public schools, they do not have broad public support, costs will go up over time, academic benefits aren´t real, and private schools would accept the only the best students. All of these arguments have some validity, all are readily rebutted, they come principally from people who benefit from a monopoly on public funding for education, and none of those who make them offer satisfactory answers to two fundamental questions: why shouldn´t parents have substantial say over where and how their children are educated, and why after all these years and all this money are so many of our inner city schools still so bad?
Of course better off parents have a great deal of say in their choice of schools. It is the deciding factor for many of us in where we live. Those of us who can afford it can and often do opt for private schools at our own expense, many of them parochial, not always from our own denomination. Sidwell Friends is a Quaker school, about as far as one can imagine from the Black Liberation Theology of the Obama´s former church in Chicago. As always, it is the poor who are left to suffer.
That should be of particular concern for Catholics. If nothing else our Church is consistent in reminding us of our responsibilities toward the needy. Beyond the necessities of life, food, shelter and clothing, few things are more important for dignity and spiritual growth than an adequate education. It is a fundamental human right. To deny it to millions of our citizens is unconscionable. To condemn so many children to failing schools is an act of oppression. As Christians and citizens of a representative democracy we have a compelling moral obligation to speak out. Our Bishops are correct. Parents have a fundamental right to choose. We should all demand they get it.
Catholics lost an important skirmish last month in Washington. So did the nation. When congress voted to end the city´s school voucher program, they did so despite an official analysis showing significantly better academic progress in children who participated in the program compared to students who remained in D.C. public schools. Washington schools have long been known as among the nations poorest performing. They are also among the most expensive. According to The Heritage Foundation the district spends more per pupil than any state, and far more than the national average. The vouchers are each worth a little more than half what the district spends per student. Ninety percent of the students receiving the vouchers are black. Nine percent are Hispanic. All are from families that could not otherwise afford private schools.
It amounts to an ongoing national scandal. In the last half century there have been just four school age children in the White House. The Kennedy children were too young. Amy Carter famously attended public schools but had difficulty making friends and couldn´t be allowed outside during recess because the playground was too near the street. Chelsea Clinton went to the prestigious and private Sidwell Friends School, as do the Obama children. President Clinton opposed vouchers. Two children now at Sidwell will apparently be forced to leave under legislation President Obama has signed.
Opponents of government subsidies for private schools offer objections that generally fall into one of several categories: they are constitutionally suspect, they undermine public schools, they do not have broad public support, costs will go up over time, academic benefits aren´t real, and private schools would accept the only the best students. All of these arguments have some validity, all are readily rebutted, they come principally from people who benefit from a monopoly on public funding for education, and none of those who make them offer satisfactory answers to two fundamental questions: why shouldn´t parents have substantial say over where and how their children are educated, and why after all these years and all this money are so many of our inner city schools still so bad?
Of course better off parents have a great deal of say in their choice of schools. It is the deciding factor for many of us in where we live. Those of us who can afford it can and often do opt for private schools at our own expense, many of them parochial, not always from our own denomination. Sidwell Friends is a Quaker school, about as far as one can imagine from the Black Liberation Theology of the Obama´s former church in Chicago. As always, it is the poor who are left to suffer.
That should be of particular concern for Catholics. If nothing else our Church is consistent in reminding us of our responsibilities toward the needy. Beyond the necessities of life, food, shelter and clothing, few things are more important for dignity and spiritual growth than an adequate education. It is a fundamental human right. To deny it to millions of our citizens is unconscionable. To condemn so many children to failing schools is an act of oppression. As Christians and citizens of a representative democracy we have a compelling moral obligation to speak out. Our Bishops are correct. Parents have a fundamental right to choose. We should all demand they get it.
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