by Renée Stoeckle
It is no secret that America’s Catholic schools are in crisis. Enrollment in 2017 is just over a third of what it was at its peak in 1965, when 5.2 million children – nearly half of all Catholic youth living in the United States – attended Catholic school.
But Catholic schools in Florida tell a different story.
So what makes the fate of Florida’s Catholic schools so different than the bleak reality of other states? It's simple: school choice programs.
The majority of Florida’s Catholic schools have embraced a true choice mentality, both in their hires and their daily practices. By embracing school choice and the opportunities it affords, Florida’s Catholic schools have made themselves among the most accessible in the nation. Financial disadvantage and special needs are no longer the barriers to a Catholic education that they once were. And while there's work left to be done, both school and parish leaders are working diligently to expand their accessibility, hosting lawmakers, marching in Tallahassee and even testifying before the Florida Legislature.
To Catholics, school choice is not about politics, it’s about mission. More than that, it’s about faith. For more than 100 years, the Catholic Church has taught that parents have an fundamental right to decide where and how their child is educated, and that public authorities have a duty and an obligation to provide for that right. This right is echoed across Church teachings, dating back to the Code of Canon Law, permeating through Vatican II and regularly surfacing with the USCCB.
In Florida, public policy allows these Catholic ideals to become a reality. Last year, the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship provided nearly $100 Million in scholarship funds to low-income and working-class students attending Catholic schools. An astounding 19 percent of Catholic school students use the scholarship. The FTC scholarship makes Catholic education a reality for more than 16,000 children who may not otherwise be able to afford tuition. As the costs of education continue to rise, bipartisan legislation approved last year raised per-student scholarship funding, and made scholarships more generous in the higher grades, where tuition tends to be more expensive.
The McKay and Gardiner scholarships enable nearly 4,000 students with specific special needs to attend a variety of Catholic schools, from traditional parochial schools to special needs centers. And Florida’s Early Learning programs – Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten and School Readiness – reach another 4,000 Catholic school students statewide, enabling parents to choose a Catholic education for their children as young as two years old.
In 1990, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops gathered to recommit themselves to the sustainability of Catholic education, and in doing so, challenged the Catholic faithful to engage in advocacy work for school choice:
Recognizing that Catholic schools are a significant part of education in the United States, we call on all citizens to join with us in supporting federal and state legislative efforts to provide financial assistance to all parents which will ensure that they can afford to choose the type of schooling they desire for their children…For our part, we are so convinced that the Catholic community needs to enter seriously into both national and state educational discussions that we are taking immediate steps to educate all citizens of the United States about the importance of assuring that all parents have a meaningful choice of schools.
In the 28 years following that meeting, Catholics in Florida have worked diligently to answer the call of the bishops, supporting legislative efforts that established the state’s five school choice programs and, in doing so, bucking the national trend – sustaining and even growing Catholic school enrollment. It is time for Catholics across the country to look at Florida’s school choice model and, in the words of the bishops, enter seriously into discussions that could enable their states to do the same.
Step Up For Students, which publishes this blog, helps administer Florida's Tax Credit and Gardiner Scholarship programs.
