Of these religious schools, 38 are Catholic, with about 3, kids in them, which means that nearly 41 percent of all choice students are attending Catholic schools. Their parents have chosen that for them.
Will Catholic Schools Be Left Behind by School Choice?
Of those 38 Catholic schools, 33 are elementary and 5 are high schools. I dare say that educators in those schools don't think that the choice program has compromised their mission. Twenty-two more schools have registered to be included in the program next year, which would bring the total to I hope that we will crack 10,, but that is uncertain.
Of the 22 new schools, I don't think any of them were Catholic, judging from the names. But that's because most of the Catholic schools that can be in the program already are. It is heartening that four of the new schools will be Lutheran. The Lutheran schools have been skittish about participation. As far as I know, not a single Catholic school has ever decided to leave the program.
Again, those numbers tell me something. Unless we assume that schools don't know what they're doing, that decision is worthy of deference. The school themselves, at least, believe that their religious mission has not been compromised, or unduly complicated, by accepting vouchers. Now, let me briefly summarize the efforts of those opposed to school choice in Milwaukee, which turns out to be a history of harassment. I'll start from the point when the supreme court of Wisconsin allowed religious schools to be in the program by upholding expansion in the summer of The United States Supreme Court later declined to hear the case, though both parties asked it to.
Just after the court victory, as the schools were applying to be in the program by filling out the form sent to them by DPI, a lot of the newly eligible religious schools balked at a page in the application form. The top of the page read, "Student Rights. That application scared a lot of the schools, and justifiably so. This list of "rights" was not part of the school choice statute passed by the legislators of the state of Wisconsin. DPI itself fashioned this list and tried to compel the schools to adopt it without any legislative authorization.
At that time, both houses of the state legislature happened to be controlled by those favorable to school choice, in this case, the Republican party although the coalition favoring school choice is larger than the Republican party. The legislature wanted to clip the wings of the DPI to prevent it from exercising an authority over these schools which the department did not have, according to the voucher statute.
This was a pivotal point. If DPI successfully exercised this kind of jurisdiction over these religious schools, things really could have turned very bad. But a compromise was reached. The "Student Rights" page was pulled out of the application. The schools were willing to sign a letter saying that they knew DPI thought the rights were to be accorded. Legally, they didn't waive anything, and we got through that first moment of potential panic.
The compromise has worked for two years now. DPI itself has never risen up again in opposition to the schools. In February , the first year of the expanded program, some new actors came onto the stage. They wrote a letter of complaint to DPI saying that the schools were not following the random selection procedure as mandated by the voucher statute. But no parents were complaining about the selection system, nor did any student file a complaint against the schools.
Since DPI approved the random selection process, it would have been something of an admission of guilt to have taken the letter seriously. Although DPI approved the random selection plans, it admitted that perhaps there were problems, and would try to make the process more fair the next year. The first year of the inclusion of religious schools went smoothly. In fact, the gentleman who runs the program for DPI and works with all the schools is well-liked by the schools and amenable to suggestions.
They basically-and I believe this is a fair reading-tried to trip up the secretary, or whoever answered, into saying something that could be construed as failing to comply with the statute and the rules of the program. Four or five testers were hired by this group. Affidavits were prepared by these testers and sent as a letter of complaint to DPI. The criticisms in this letter went beyond random selection complaints. They were also alleging violations of a provision in the statute which restricts charging fees for non-tuition costs. And in the case of the 17 religious schools out of the 18 total who were in their complaint, the letter alleged violations of the religious opt-out clause of the Milwaukee parental-choice-program statute.
Of the 18 schools accused of violations, 13 were Catholic, 3 were Lutheran, and 2 were non-denominational; only one was non-religious. You might notice that the percentage of schools leans disproportionately toward religious schools, given the overall make-up of the program. The principal member of the volunteer group that had helped out during the "application scare" said that the complaint had no standing because there was no actual parent or student making a complaint and, furthermore, he pointed out that DPI had no legal jurisdiction to be investigating the schools in this way.
But DPI thought otherwise. It would go on to investigate the schools anyway. In the early summer of , DPI released what it termed "a probable cause finding. Four of the schools were Catholic, two were non-denominational, and one was Lutheran. DPI suggested mediation between the parties. Of course, there is no party to mediate with, since no parent or student in the program made an actual complaint.
The schools are perfectly willing to co-operate with DPI to make the program work, but they're not inclined to enter into mediation with a non-party, non-parent, fake, hired tester who called to trip up whoever answered the telephone. Efforts are underway to ensure that the random selection process continues to work fairly. If a grade at a choice school is oversubscribed, students have to be randomly selected to fill the available space. Schools cannot screen out students with an admission test. They do, though, have placement tests.
If you're skeptical, you think, well, it's really an admission test; they're trying to get rid of dumb kids - not to put too fine a point on it. The schools say, no, we really just need to know what grade level to put them in. Sometimes, a parents thinks the child is ready for eleventh grade, but he's actually only ready for tenth grade and there may not be room in tenth grade for another child.
DPI thinks that it would be better to have two totally separate application processes for choice students and non-choice students. You might think that way, too, if you had to run the program. But Sister Monica at St. Joan Antida High School, for instance, knows that it's not that easy.
When people apply or call to talk with a prospective parent, she does not know right away whether they'll qualify for the voucher program or will need to pay their own way. The parents themselves might not know yet, because they haven't done their taxes and they don't know if they exceed the income limit. And of course, she doesn't want to assume that they can apply under the choice program as opposed to the regular admissions process.
They apply according to regular admissions and hope that they qualify later for the voucher program. It's unworkable to have two totally separate application processes. Even though some of the schools are chafing against the regulations, they're willing to pay a small price to stay in the program. Sure, there may be a little bit of a difference of opinion about how much of a price they are willing to pay, or how much they want to fight to avoid mediation. But that's the way these things go. Of the schools, DPI has singled out just six it forced to mediate.
And three of these probably won't face mediation, because most of the problems can be worked out easily. That's not really very much intrusion. Let me speak briefly about a subject on which DPI has made no determination, but which may pose major problems that I hope can be avoided well in advance of a court case: A child can, through written request by the parent, opt out of what's called a "religious activity.
Somebody, someday will have to come up with the legal definition of "religious activity. Of course, the more important question is whether opt-out clauses should be in a voucher statute at all. One was placed in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program because its authors thought it was necessary on constitutional grounds. Many people disagreed then; I would have, had I been involved. And there are people who disagree with the clause now. Those who disagree may have case law on their side because of the Southworth case - a Wisconsin decision about student fees.
A young man claimed the right to be able to opt out of paying student fees because some of the money was going to groups with which he disagreed. But the court upheld the fees, arguing that as long as the money is neutrally disbursed, people who are religious minorities are protected from coercion without needing an additional opt-out right to protect them. So, if you transfer that decision to the school-choice context, the opt-out is not necessary as long as the aid is neutrally disbursed, which it is in almost all choice schemes.
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In conclusion, school choice is a matter of justice. Justice cannot be left strictly to charity. It should be a matter of a public philosophy. We're called upon to pursue public policy that reflects the best aims of our public philosophy. When we created the PAVE program in Milwaukee - a privately-funded school voucher program-we intended it to end eventually.
It literally was conceived to "pave" the way for justice in the form of state-sponsored vouchers, not as a matter of charity, but as matter of just public policy. In fact, I think the president of the Bradley Foundation was bold enough to predict at that time that the process would take three years. I don't want to minimize concern about over-regulation of Catholic schools.
The concern is justified and warranted. We deal with new threats every day. But I don't think that we should give up.
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What we know from Milwaukee does not provide an argument against choice. Yes, we're fighting hard in Milwaukee. But someday a case will make it to the Supreme Court, and the pressure here will be relieved because the resources of the opposition will have to be spent elsewhere. The opposition won't give up easily. There will be little fires we'll have to put out nationwide.
But vouchers are worth fighting for because the walls keeping religious schools out of school choice initiatives are starting to come down. We're inspired by Ronald Reagan who once said, "Tear down this wall. Meanwhile, we're fighting at the barricades here in Milwaukee, and to quote Reagan's friend, Margaret Thatcher, in another context, "This is no time to go wobbly.
I believe very strongly that everything that happens is the result of God's plan. On the way to this very room as I was coming up the steps of the Capitol, I was watching these little groups of visitors from around the country talking with their congressmen. And as I passed one group I heard a child ask this question: I don't know whether that child had been prompted by somebody or whether she had been listening to the debate that's been going on in our country for the last few years.
But I don't care. What her question said to me was that, once again, the children get it. This argument, this debate, this conversation is not rocket science. There are roughly 60 million children in this country in grades kindergarten through twelfth grade, and there are only 11, who receive vouchers. I find it quite odd that there are groups of people, and Michael Hartmann mentioned some of them, who are literally spending millions and millions of dollars and are coming from all over this country and around the world to defeat this program. In Milwaukee, they've made no secret that they've come to set up an office with one purpose: To answer the question, "Are vouchers good for Catholic schools?
I answer that question with three others: If not us, then who? If not here, then where? And if not for the Kingdom of God and for the children, then why? That's my answer to whether or not vouchers are good for Catholic schools. I've spent the last fourteen years working in the inner city of Milwaukee with children similar to those Congressman Armey described. Most of them come from single-parent homes, primarily female-headed, most live below the poverty level, most have experienced more violence in their few short years than any of us will experience in a lifetime.
And I've also listened to mothers who come to me begging to escape the public school system. Let's just stick with Milwaukee for now. Because Milwaukee is part of Wisconsin, a state with a good overall record in education, the city has bragged for years that it was number one or number two in SAT scores, until somebody asked what the scores were in the city of Milwaukee itself. That question met with silence. Then we discovered that most of the students in Milwaukee's public schools didn't take the SAT.
Somebody then asked how our kids are doing educationally. And we discovered that the drop-out rate is higher than 50 percent. And then, when you look at African-American males, the graduation rate is 10 percent. That's how Milwaukee public schools are doing. Vouchers are not a panacea. I agree with Father Davis. Parents who are paying their share of taxes should get some share of it back for the choice they make.
The most visible form of school choice has been the charter-school movement, which created publicly funded schools operated independently of the local school district. Charter schools were intended by their advocates to provide an alternative for parents to the traditional public-school model, lining up better with parental values while also escaping from the regulations that held public schools back.
Some research suggests, though, that charter schools have been detrimental to the continued existence of Catholic schools.
Are Vouchers Good for Catholic Education?
But the key to the poor outcomes in these two states seems to have been that laws allowed only public options for school choice. In states that treat private and public-school options equally in terms of funding, like Florida and Arizona, Catholic school systems have thrived alongside other public options, and enrollment has risen. Private individuals and corporations can receive a state tax credit in return for their donation to a scholarship organization. These organizations then award scholarships to students from low-income families seeking to attend private schools.
Because of these scholarships, the cost of Catholic schools no longer becomes a reason to discourage a family from enrolling. Catholic Perspectives on Political Participation. Edited by Nicholas P. Catholic Schools in the Public Interest. Catholicism and Historical Narrative. How to write a great review.
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