School Choice and Aid to Private Schools

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, parents are “those first responsible for the education of their children.”[1] The education of children includes not only preparation for future employment, but also preparation to be moral and virtuous adults. The Catechism notes further that it belongs to parents to raise their children according to parental values and beliefs, and “to choose a school for [their children] which corresponds to [the parents’] own convictions.” Schools thus act in furtherance of the parents’ role as educators.

As the Second Vatican Council noted in the Declaration on Religious Liberty, “The civil authority must therefore recognize the right of parents to choose with genuine freedom schools or other means of education.”[2] The American Catholic bishops recognized in their statement on Faithful Citizenship that “No one model or means of education is appropriate to the needs of all persons.”[3] Parents should therefore be able to choose whatever means of education is best for their children, “including private and religious schools.” The “genuine freedom”[4] to select an option other than public education means that there should not be penalties for private, religious or home schooling, and these options should be available even to “families of modest means.”[5]

The rights of parents are also “violated if their children are compelled to attend classes which are not in agreement with the religious beliefs of the parents.”[6] Schools play an important role in the formation of character. Public education as well as private should “provide students with opportunities for moral and spiritual formation to complement their intellectual and physical development,” according to the U.S. Bishops’ statement on Principles for Educational Reform.[7]

This statement acknowledges that “While a commitment to religious liberty excludes mandatory instruction in a particular faith, the religious liberty of students and parents is also violated by an “attitude towards religion…so theoretically neutral as to be anti-religious in practice.” Thus, in any given community, “it is possible to reach consensus” on basic moral and ethical principles, “and teach these shared values” without “teaching a specific religious faith.”

Parents’ duties in choosing schooling for their children extend beyond the selection of a school. The Code of Canon Law states, “It is incumbent upon parents to cooperate closely with the school teachers to whom they entrust their children.”[8] Correspondingly, “teachers are to collaborate closely with parents who are to be willingly heard” regarding the education of their children. Parents have not only a right but a duty to be aware of the content of their children’s instruction, whether it is provided by public, private or religious schools.[9]

In the 1850s, an anti-Catholic political party in Massachusetts, the “Know Nothings”, rammed through a constitutional amendment banning state funds for private schools, known as the “Anti-Aid” Amendment. In 1917, new concerns about Catholic immigrants draining educational resources during the Depression prompted the legislature to ratify the anti-aid amendment.

The legislature also added a constitutional amendment barring initiative petitions dealing with religion, thus making any attempt to repeal the anti-aid amendment extremely difficult to complete. This action thus prevents initiative petitions to remove or change the anti-aid amendment from reaching the legislature.

Consequently, a group of inner-city parents have filed a federal lawsuit in Boston to overturn both amendments on the ground that they violate the U.S. Constitution. They want to repeal the anti-aid amendment so that parents like them can seek public aid to help support the placement of their public school children into Catholic schools. Federal judge George O’Toole ruled against the parents on April 1 of this year and the parents filed an appeal on July 6.[10]

The parents could succeed by convincing the courts either to strike down both amendments or at least the one dealing with initiative petitions. Then supporters could gather signatures to send a new amendment authorizing aid to private schools to the legislature, and ultimately to the voters by initiative petition. That means that school choice and aid to private schools may become public policy questions that legislators at the State House will have to vote on in the future.

Catholic Citizenship is a non-partisan association of Roman Catholics faithful to Church teaching. Catholic Citizenship is not part of the Catholic Church. However, its positions and goals are consistent with and supportive of Catholic teaching as promulgated by the Magisterium.

www.catholicvote.org
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[1] Catechism of the Catholic Church no. 2229 (2d ed. 2000) [hereinafter CCC].
[2] Second Vatican Council, Declaration on Religious Liberty no. 5 (1965).
[3] United States Conference of Catholic Bishops [USCCB], Faithful Citizenship: A Catholic Call to Political Responsibility at 20 (2003).
[4] Declaration on Religious Liberty no. 5.
[5] National Catholic Educational Association, Statement on Parental Choice in Education (2002).
[6] Declaration on Religious Liberty no. 5.
[7] USCCB Committee on Education, Principles for Educational Reform in the United States, Principle 5 (1995).
[8] Code of Canon Law, canon 796.
[9] Pope Pius XI, On Christian Learning no. 35 (1929) (quoting from Pope Leo XIII).
[10] Boyette v. Galvin, No. 98-CV-10377 (D. Mass. 2004). The case has been renamed Wirzburger v. Galvin on appeal. The Becket Fund in Washington, D.C. is representing the parents.

Ave Maria Law School student Aleksandra Biskupska has provided the summaries of Church teaching for this issue.

2 posted on 09/09/2004 4:35:47 PM PDT by Coleus (God gave us the right to life and self preservation and a right to defend ourselves and families)

John Kerry is an enemy of Catholic teachings.
Help us keep him from the power to destroy Catholic values.
catholicsagainstkerry.com

3 posted on 09/09/2004 4:41:41 PM PDT by jmaroneps37 ( Kerry's not "one of us": catholicsagainstkerry.com. needs your help.)

School Choice Petition Drive in NJ for Catholic Schools

School Choice Petition Drive - PARISH Information:
                School Choice Petition Drive
                School Choice Petition Drive (Alternative)
                Guidelines for School Choice Petition Drive
                How and When To Begin
                12 Myths about School Choice
                School Choice Petition (English) - PDF format
                School Choice Petition (Spanish) - PDF format

School Choice Petition Drive - School Coordinator Information:
                School Choice Petition Drive
                School Choice Petition Drive (Alternative)
                Guidelines for School Choice Petition Drive
                How and When to Begin
               12 Myths about School Choice
                School Choice Petition (English) - PDF format
                School Choice Petition (Spanish) - PDF format

4 posted on 09/09/2004 6:30:55 PM PDT by Coleus (God gave us the right to life and self preservation and a right to defend ourselves and families)

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