THE TABLET
September 13, 2008

Concern for Our Schools

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

The results are in and the children in Catholic schools throughout Brooklyn and Queens and their teachers have good reason to be proud.  According to the latest 2008 New York State test results, our students are doing better than ever, especially when we compare them to New York State as a whole and New York City in particular.  Our students excel in a number of areas and in no category are the students of our Diocese deficient.  This is something we truly must be proud of; and at the same time, something we must disseminate to the wider public.  I sincerely congratulate our students, parents, teachers, and administrators for their diligence in continually striving for academic excellence, and focusing instructional time on meeting the State’s learning standards.  The quality of our education, even by every State standard, is superior.  But what assistance are we receiving for the good work we are doing for our State?

Recently Governor David Patterson, in across the board spending cuts, did not exempt the meager assistance that is given to non-public schools for what is called mandated services.  These mandated services include funding for services required by the State.  Nevertheless, non public schools will receive a check with a 15 percent reduction in mandated service aid. Our compensation for services the state requires has been reduced in real terms.  There is no plan this year for any type of tuition assistance, much less a voucher program, to assist parents  in meeting the tuition necessary to support non public schools.

On the national level there is an unfortunate lack of understanding of the plight of our Catholic Schools.  I did a quick comparative analysis of the Democratic and Republican platforms, specifically on what they had to say about education and also a perusal of the candidates’ speeches.  Senator McCain rightly noted “Education is the civil rights issue of this century….When a public school fails to meet its obligations to students, parents deserve a choice in the education of their children. And I intend to give it to them. Some may choose a better public school. Some may choose a private one.... But they will have that choice and their children will have that opportunity.”

The Democratic Platform, unfortunately, sees public schools and public charter schools as the only means for educating our children.  It did not even acknowledge the existence of alternative educational systems, and most importantly the issue of parental choice and freedom in education.  When all is said and done, this is a fundamental divide between those who support solely public education and those who see the possibilities of other educational systems that contribute to our national progress.  All of the research that has been done on parochial education, in trying to find what the difference is and why we seem to excel academically, comes down to one most important variable, parental involvement.   How true it is; parents choose Catholic Schools, they pay tuition, but most importantly they support their children in parochial schools, in learning their faith and achieving academically.

As we look at the future viability of our own schools, one principle will always remain clear, parental involvement and parental responsibility.  The whole Catholic philosophy of education is based on the fact that it is the parents’ responsibility to educate their children.  The Church, all of us gathered together, can take upon ourselves the responsibility of assisting parents in fulfilling their primary responsibility.  However parents can never be left out of the equation. Without them the education process would be truly deficient. 

A few years ago   when there was some glimmer of hope that parents of children in non public schools in New York State would be ale to claim an Education Tax Credit, I had a personal encounter with Randi Weingarten, the President of the Teachers’ Union.  In our two hour conversation it became clear that there was a fundamental philosophical divide between the teachers’ union concept of education and ours’ as a Church.  Somehow they believe that teachers can educate better than parents and that parents sometimes get in the way.  There is no doubt in my mind that this is the fundamental divide that needs to be bridged.  When we look more closely at the Republican Platform we see these words:  “Parents should be able to decide the learning environment that is best for their child.  We support choice in education for all families, but especially those with children trapped in dangerous and failing schools, whether through charter schools, vouchers or tax credits for attending faith-based or other non-public schools, or the option of home schooling.”

In contrast when we try to find similar language in the Democratic Platform, and we come up empty. Their education platform has a different focus:  “We will promote innovation in our public schools because research shows that resources alone will not create the schools that we need to help our children succeed.  We need to adapt curricula and the school calendar to the needs of the 21st century; reform the schools of education that produce most of our teachers; promote public charter schools that are accountable; and streamline the certification process for those with valuable skills who want careers as teachers.”  As we see in this statement, there is a clear emphasis on public education and teacher responsibility.

As the Bishop of the Diocese, where today more of our Catholic students are in public school than in our Catholic schools, I sincerely hope for the improvement of our public schools to give our children a better education and a chance at a future.  I am also convinced as a citizen, that monopolies do not succeed in our country.  Without the competition between private and public education, there can never be any comparative analysis as to who is doing better.  As the statistics I quoted in the beginning of this article show, public schools have something to match themselves against.  Research has also shown that in no way do we “cream,” and take only the best students.  Although parental involvement is a critical factor, our children come from the same neighborhoods and economic conditions as children in public schools, there must be something else that we are doing right that is making a difference

As we put out into the deeper waters of the election season, our own self-interest should be part of our decision making process.  It seems that one party and candidate hold no promise or hope for assistance to our Catholic schools, while the other at least promises some assistance.  With the cooperation of both parties it can be done.  Join me in congratulating our schools on their achievement as we begin another academic year; and be with me as we continue to analyze the choices before us.

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