By Jim Cultrara
An article in yesterday’s New York Daily News Charter vs. Catholic schools revealed an alarming statistic – charter schools account for 37 percent of the recent decline in the state’s Catholic school enrollment. The article highlights some initial research by Abe Lackman, scholar in residence at Albany Law School, that was presented at a symposium recently hosted by St. Francis College. I was asked to be on the panel to respond to the findings and I will stand by what I said then, namely:
- Parents should be alarmed, taxpayers should be alarmed, and lawmakers should be alarmed.
- Lawmakers intended charter schools to be an alternative to low-performing public schools (so, presumably, the siphoning off of religious and independent school students is unintended).
- Unless the playing field is leveled, far more Catholic schools will close, which in turn will unnecessarily disrupt thousands of lives and cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars more.
When Cardinal Dolan testified in Albany last year, he urged lawmakers to reverse this trend. Here’s a little of what he said: “I stand with you in support of our public schools. All I’m asking is that our support be for all our kids, whether they’re in government or independent schools. I’m not surprised that our parents and kids are angry. They know you support public schools – and that’s fine – so do they. They know you support the growth of charter schools – and that’s fine too. But they want to know why you are not supporting them as well. As the public sector expands, the religious and independent sector is shrinking – and it is taxpaying families who pay the price. Please reverse this trend. We urge you to enact a scholarship or education tax credit program that will provide meaningful assistance to enable parents to choose the school best suited for their children. You can afford to do no less.”
Read the Daily News article HERE.
By Jim Cultrara
Michael Benjamin’s OpEd in the NY Post this week, Stop burning NY’s special-ed dollars, calls for a “shake up of New York’s shameful special-education system… with a school-choice program for students with special needs and disabilities. ” Shameful is right. Not only because far too many children with special needs are not getting the services they need, but because Mr. Benjamin’s proposed solution is opposed by the very people who are in place to serve these children. Parents are the ones who bring children into this world and Mr. Benjamin is proposing to empower those parents with the means to direct their children’s education. Frankly, that’s the way it already is for families with financial means and it should be the way for all families. It’s a shame that such a proposal seems so radical. And shame on those who oppose it.
By Jim Cultrara
Catholic Schools Week, Jan. 29 – Feb 4, has given us an opportunity to celebrate the enormous contributions that Catholic schools have made and continue to make in New York State and indeed across the entire country. Our schools are an integral part of a pluralistic educational system that serves a diverse population and in doing so, they continue to help educate and form children into loving, productive and responsible adults – the kind of adult that is the foundation of solid families, businesses and our citizenry.
Moreover, Catholic schools, like all other religious and independent schools, are a gargantuan gift to taxpayers because of the billions of tax dollars that are saved by not having to educate these children in public schools. The source of that gift, however is traced back to the parents who struggle to make tuition payments for their children’s education — not to mention the teachers, administrators and staff of Catholic schools who endure a salary lower than what their taxpayer-supported counterparts in public schools receive. Think about that for a moment. Tuition-paying parents not only pay income, property and sales taxes that support public schools, but their tuition dollars support the salaries (and therefore, income, property and sales taxes) of the teachers, administrators and staff who run the Catholic schools. The government, in turn, collects those taxes and uses those dollars to support, among other things, public schools. And what do these parents get in return for their gift to the state? That’s a good question to ask of your elected representatives.