Richard A. Sokerka
This year has been especially difficult for students of all ages in our Diocese — from kindergarten to seniors in high school. The COVID-19 pandemic changed the lives of students in a way that no one has ever experienced.
This issue of The Beacon pays tribute to the Class of 2020 — a group of graduates who deserve high praise for their perseverance and pluck. And, due to the lifting of some state mandates during this summer, our graduates will be able to celebrate, albeit within social distancing guidelines, with each other at ceremonies outdoors throughout the Diocese.
These graduates are also to be commended for making the choice to want a Catholic education at a time when many of our elected officials devalue faith-based education to the point that school choice will not be part of their party’s platform in this year’s election.
Contrary to these politicians’ mindset, the U.S. Supreme Court cemented a victory for religious liberty and school choice in a decision rendered on June 30. Written by Chief Justice John Roberts, it ruled that a Montana school choice program that allows a tax-credit scholarship program to benefit religious schools is constitutional. The state program is voluntary and funded through private donations. It allows a dollar-for-dollar tax credit to those who participate.
The program was challenged as a violation of Montana’s Blaine Amendment, which denies state funding of religious schools. The original Blaine Amendment, proposed in 1876, was never passed at the federal level. However, it did pass at the state level in Montana and 37 other states. Rooted in anti-Catholic bigotry, it is still part of all these state constitutions to this day. The Amendment, initially used to stop the growth of Catholic schools and end any choice a student had of schooling, has over the years morphed into bans on state funding of all religious schools.
The Supreme Court’s decision made clear that the U.S. Constitution required Montana’s tuition-assistance program to be available for use at all private schools, including religious ones. Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts said that excluding a school from a private-school funding program because of its religious character was “simply unconstitutional.”
Justice Samuel Alito wrote, “The program helped parents of modest means do what more affluent parents can do: send their children to a school of their choice.”
That is why aid-provision school choice should be front and center in this fall’s election. Every student should have the same opportunity to go to the school of their choice to receive the best possible education no matter where they live or what their family’s income.
Many politicians are mum on school choice because public school teachers’ unions fill their re-election coiffures with huge donations.
Today, many parents choose to send their children to religious schools — “a choice,” the Supreme Court majority noted, “protected by the Constitution.” However, no-aid provisions penalize this decision “by cutting families off from otherwise available benefits if they choose a religious private school rather than a secular one, and for no other reason.”
It is time for our political leaders to see beyond petty politics and big donors, and make certain that school choice with aid provisions is in place so that any child of any race; of any financial means and of any city in this great nation, can have the freedom to choose where they want to go to school.