Mary Jo Pippenger and Sharon Ver Plancke are among the 900 volunteers who are contributing their time and talent to “Street Scenes,” the 27th annual benefit for Carmel High School in Mundelein, Feb. 9 and 10. Local Catholics have a long tradition of supporting education through such benefits. Catholic New World / Sandy Bertog

Education plan eyed as tuition aid

President Bush’s education plan could make it possible for more families living in poverty to choose Catholic schools for their children, local Catholic education leaders said.

Overall, the plan drew positive reviews, especially the provision that would allow poor parents whose children attend failing public schools to take $1,500 in federal aid and use it to send their children to a different public or private school.

“This meets two of our core and essential values,” said Sister of St. Joseph Judith Cauley, interim co-superintendent of schools for the archdiocese. “Certainly for the church, we have a preferential option for the poor, and we would like to see any money that could be extended for the parents to make a choice for their children.”

The Bush proposal does not use the word “vouchers,” but supporters and opponents of the plan say that’s essentially what the federal aid would be. Under the plan, schools would be evaluated. If a school were designated as failing two years in a row, poor students—those eligible for free or reduced-price meals—would be able to get $1,500 in existing poverty funds for outside tutoring or transfer to another public school. Students whose school is designated as failing for three years could take the money to a private or parochial school.

Other elements of the plan include annual mandatory testing of all students in grades three through eight, more flexibility for local school districts in spending federal education money, money aimed at ensuring every child can read by the third grade and more money for charter schools.

Cauley said she wasn’t surprised that Bush released his education plan so quickly.

“I think he knows that education is one agenda that touches the lives of most people in this country,” she said.

Doug Delaney, executive director of the Catholic Conference of Illinois, applauded the plan because it expands the discussion of school choice and opens the door to discussion of vouchers on a national level.

“The fact that this includes parental choice is good for us,” said Delaney, whose group successfully lobbied for private school tuition tax credits in Illinois two years ago.

News of the plan came the same week the archdiocese announced that it would ask its parochial schools to make “tuition covenants,” asking parents who can afford it to pay the full cost of educating their children. In practice, that will mean a tuition increase for most families.

While most Catholic schools will see their tuition rise to more than $2,700, a $1,500 voucher could make a big difference for poor families, Cauley said.

“Fifteen hundred dollars is $1,500 more than 0,” she said. “It would be a substantial help for people who are struggling to make ends meet.”

Her hope is that vouchers eventually would be extended to all families, especially poor families who are already making a financial sacrifice to keep their children in Catholic schools.

“Currently, our families are paying twice,” she said. “They pay for schools with their property taxes and then they pay tuition. It seems to me that parents should have the right to designate where their tax dollars go for education.”

After all, she said, Catholic schools are the second-largest school system in the country, and they provide a public good by giving parents another educational option. Archdiocesan schools educate roughly 129,000 children, making it the 11th largest school system in the country.

The voucher plan faces stiff opposition from the National Education Association, Americans United for Separation of Church and State and other organizations, and it will have a tough fight in Congress, Delaney said.

“We haven’t really seen what’s going to happen,” he said. “This is a proposal, a plan. It’s fairly clear that it won’t come out the way it was written.”

That’s all the more reason for supporters of education to write or call their representatives and senators, Cauley said.

“Legislative action is really faith in action,” she said. “We need our people, now more than ever, to contact their legislators and congresspeople to let them know this is a critical issue for our country.”