It is interesting to note that education is one of the major issues on the radar screen of all the candidates for the 2000 presidential campaign.
What is the reason for this renewed national interest in education? There are many factors afoot, of course:
* the low test scores of so many students, especially in the public schools of our inner-city communities, which so often are producing graduates who are barely literate and totally unprepared for employment in the high tech-age in which we find ourselves;
* the loss of discipline and the increased school violence, epitomized by the tragedy at Columbine High;
* the failure of the much touted but short-lived movement for self-esteem development and for the by now ancient issue of values clarification.
Major shift
I would also note that the suggestion of Dr. Leonard Fiori, president of the National Catholic Education Association, that we are on the cusp of a major shift to a post-secular era in American society is right on target. We are in the throes of the intellectual and moral exhaustion of secularism, which has led to a growing interest in things spiritual and religious.
Examples of secular burnout are everywhere to be found, since so much of what the secularists have proposed in their zeal to improve the human condition has proven to be counterproductive. Society is all the worse off for secular bigotry against marriage and family, traditional personal values and virtue, as well as religious faith and practice.
Indeed, the renewed interest in faith and spirituality is evidenced in the pages of our most influential secular media. For example, a recent edition of The Washington Post devoted its entire issue to books on religion and spirituality. Another surprising media example occurred when Washington's Brookings Institution devoted the Spring issue of its magazine to religion and American public life, asking, "What's God got to do with the American Experiment?"
It appears, then, that increasing numbers of individuals are rediscovering religion experientially, almost pragmatically, as the best solution to the quandaries of life.
Educational choice
All of this, I believe, has coalesced to produce a renewed national debate about choice in education. Ten years ago, the idea of school choice seemed to have great potential merit but appeared to be an unrealistic goal.
However, in the current political landscape, school choice is a central issue in the public debate; and most of the presidential candidates have expressed support for one or another proposal designed to spur school choice, be they vouchers, educational tax credits or charter schools.
The general public also is resonating with this trend. A recent Gallup Poll, for example, showed that 48 percent of Americans support vouchers to pay all the tuition in private schools and 52 percent are in favor of partial tuition -- a substantial increase from earlier polls on this subject.
Indeed, the support for the new charter schools' law instituted in New York State demonstrates clearly both the desire and the need for greater parental choice in education.
While charter schools are an important first step in addressing this need, these schools remain public schools and, hence, cannot meet the needs of parents, especially poor parents, who want a religious education for their children but who lack the financial means to make this fundamental choice a reality.
Moral development
It is hard to imagine a more essential element of parental choice than the right of a parent to guide a child's moral, spiritual and intellectual development in accord with one's conscience and beliefs.
Yet, for many parents who lack the financial means, this fundamental right of choice in education is being thwarted. For others, it is secured only at considerable sacrifice: the second job, the double shift, both parents working and the unmet needs of family life.
It is clear that, for many parents, economic realities are trampling upon their freedom to choose a school for their children.
Time is now
Almost every democracy in the world today supports parental choice in education with public funds. In a country that prides itself on our heritage of freedom and justice, and in an age when the civil liberties of almost every group are being protected steadfastly, it seems that the time has come -- and indeed, is long overdue -- for developing a public policy that will protect and secure the rights of parents who choose religious or other nonpublic schools.
Vouchers or tuition tax credits are a sensible, fiscally responsible and constitutional way to assist parents in making this choice, thereby fulfilling their responsibility as the primary educators of their children.
Our state and nation have a long history of governmental support to individuals and families for health care, housing, nutrition, day care and college education. Vouchers or tuition tax credits for youngsters in primary and secondary education are a next logical step, building upon the current policy of funding transportation, computer and lunch programs for students in nonpublic schools.
Public schools
The support of parental choice in education is not an issue of public vs. private schools. We, in the Catholic community, are supportive of public education.
In 1995, for example, the bishops of the United States issued a statement titled "Principles for Educational Reform in the United States," which underscores clearly the need of all citizens to support public school education and to recognize the invaluable contributions that so many of the teachers, administrators and school board members in our public schools make in educating students, often against overwhelming odds.
Currently, public schools enroll more than 80 percent of the students in our state, including the vast majority of our Catholic young people. We, therefore, have a vested interest in advocating for strong public schools.
However, as John Chubb, the educational analyst for the prestigious Brookings Institute, has noted, extensive studies reveal that the best way to improve public education is through a system of "competition and choice."
Options offered
Support for school vouchers or tuition tax credits, then, is a positive and constructive way to respond to this need for choice in the education of our young. It makes good fiscal sense, good educational sense, good common sense.
As we enter the new millennium, therefore, I urge our Governor and members of the Legislature to exercise leadership in providing vouchers, tax credits, or the like for parents who choose religious education or other nonpublic education for their children.
Such a policy represents a timely, enlightened, equitable, fiscally sound and socially responsible investment in our state's future. Won't you join me in lending your voice to this worthy cause on behalf of parents' rights, the future of Catholic school education and the well-being of our society?