Victory in the Struggle for School Choice in Indiana

The teaching of the Catholic Church can provide insights for real educational reform

As those first responsible for the education of their children, parents have the right to choose a school for them which corresponds to their own convictions. This right is fundamental. As far as possible parents have the duty of choosing schools that will best help them in their task as Christian educators.Public authorities have the duty of guaranteeing this parental right and of ensuring the concrete conditions for its exercise. (Catholic Catechism)

P>INDIANAPOLIS, Ind (Catholic Online) - One of many school choice cases winding their way through the Courts is Meredith v. Daniels, (IN Super. Ct., Aug. 15, 2011). The Indiana Teachers Union asked an Indiana Trial Court to issue a temporary injunction to prevent the implementation of the Indiana Choice Scholarship Legislation.

The Union claimed that the Choice Scholarship Program violated various provisions of the Indiana Constitution: Art. 8, Sec. 1 ("General and Uniform System of Common Schools" clause); Art. 1, Sec. 4  (no compulsion to support any place of worship); and Art. 1, Sec. 6 (no government funds may be spent for the benefit of any religious institution). 

The Trial Court denied the request and concluded that plaintiffs are unlikely to succeed on the merits of any of these claims. The Trial Judge found that Art. 1, Sec. 4 of the Indiana Constitution  "does not preclude the use of general tax revenues to fund scholarships that may be used, at the discretion of scholarship recipients, to pay for education at religious schools."

The trend in these cases is clear; school choice (or better, parental choice since it is the parents who make the choice) is winning. This case was filed in the State Court because the Federal cases have been unsuccessful. So, the opponents of parental choice are now trying to stop the momentum by using arguments out of State Constitutions.  They are failing there as well.

The unwillingness of those currently in charge of the Federal Educational Bureaucracy to consider school choice when everyone knows our National educational system is broken exposes the difference between rhetoric and reality, real concern for real reform and sophistry. School Choice affirms that Parents should make the choice and State and Federal Government should support the first government in the home.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church affirms the right of parents to choose a school for their children, "As those first responsible for the education of their children, parents have the right to choose a school for them which corresponds to their own convictions. This right is fundamental. As far as possible parents have the duty of choosing schools that will best help them in their task as Christian educators.Public authorities have the duty of guaranteeing this parental right and of ensuring the concrete conditions for its exercise. "(CCC#2229)

The teaching of the Catholic Church on the primacy of parents in the educational mission is refreshingly forthright and helpful. It can provide insights for real educational reform which actually promotes the common good and does not just mouth the phrase and continue failed policies.

The primacy of marriage - and the family founded upon it - as the first cell of society, the first church, first government, first school, first hospital, first economy, and the first mediating institution of the broader society is at the heart of Catholic Social Thought. It should also lay the foundation for building a truly just educational and public policy in our Nation.

It is also time to help people understand that what is really behind the issue of supporting Parental Choice in education - the recognition of the family as the first school and first vital cell of human society. Parents are the first teachers of their children and all education begins in the home. It is the right of parents to choose where their children go to school. That choice should include the full array of options, public, private, parochial, charter and home schools, no matter what the economic status of those parents. It is better for the children, better for society and more economically efficient.

Education outside of the home is an extension of the parental role and should recognize and defer to the parents primary role in the educational mission. These children are not, in the words of the US Supreme Court in the Pierce v Society of Sisters Case "mere creatures of the State"  The family is the first government and the first school house. We have forgotten that objective truth as a nation and we are reaping the consequences.

Here is an excerpt from the Apostolic Exhortation "Familiaris Consortio" written by Blessed John Paul II : "The right and duty of parents to give education is essential, since it is connected with the transmission of human life; it is original and primary with regard to the educational role of others, on account of the uniqueness of the loving relationship between parents and children; it is irreplaceable and inalienable, and therefore incapable of being entirely delegated to others or usurped by others..."

In his "Letter to Families" the late Pope wrote "Parents are the first and most important educators of their own children, and they also possess a fundamental competence in this area; they are educators because they are parents. They share their educational mission with other individuals or institutions, such as the Church and the State. But the mission of education must always be carried out in accordance with a proper application of the Principle of Subsidiarity."

"This implies the legitimacy and indeed the need of giving assistance to the parents, but finds its intrinsic and absolute limit in their prevailing right and actual capabilities. The principle of subsidiarity is thus at the service of parental love, meeting the good of the family unit. For parents by themselves are not capable of satisfying every requirement of the whole process of raising children; especially in matters concerning their schooling and the entire gamut of socialization.

"Subsidiarity thus complements paternal and maternal love and confirms its fundamental nature, inasmuch as all other participants in the process of education are only able to carry out their responsibilities in the name of the parents, with their consent and, to a certain degree, with their authorization."

School Choice is an idea whose time has come. It is a matter of true social justice, not what is masquerading as social justice in some circles these days. The opposition of some in control of the teachers unions to such a just approach to educational policy and fundamental fairness shows how far some of these mediating associations have strayed from their primary role. They fail to defer to the first mediating institution of the family.  Parental choice in education is right for our children, right for our parents and right for our Nation.

The current overly federalized approach to education in the United States is failing. Statistics and experience confirm the obvious. It is time for a change and parental (school) choice is the change that is needed.

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