Only the Educated Are Free

If the leaders of America were to rewrite the Declaration of Independence today, it would most likely state that all men and women having been created equal, they are endowed with the unalienable right to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Higher Education.

That quip reflects the pervasive mentality and reality in our nation that the pursuit and realization of success in modern society is inextricably linked to education.

In poll after poll, Americans list education as a primary concern and consistently signal support for government-funded private school vouchers as a means to level the uneven academic playing field. An August 1997, Gallup Poll revealed that 55 percent of public school parents nationally support vouchers.

Unfortunately, congressional Republicans in August cowered to veto threats from President Clinton and nixed Georgia Senator Paul Coverdell’s attempts to incorporate Education Savings Accounts into the 1997 tax bill. Senator Coverdell’s proposal would have simply allowed parents to place money in tax-free savings accounts to pay for their children’s private school tuition down the road. A vote on taxpayer-financed vouchers failed in the House of Representatives on November 4, 1997.

Angered by backroom treason and deal-making in the leadership, tenacious conservatives led by Texas Representative Bill Archer won passage of the Education Savings Account bill in the House of Representatives on October 23, 1997—but liberal Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy has vowed to suffocate the bill in the Senate by filibuster. Similar bureaucratic tricks and legal roadblocks are stalling state-sponsored school choice and other pro-family education initiatives from coast to coast.

G. K. Chesterton wrote in Orthodoxy that he “came to the conclusion that the optimist thought everything good except the pessimist, and that the pessimist thought everything bad, except himself.” The implication of this drollery submits that there is objectively a little good and bad in everything despite what policy adversaries contend—and such is the case with school choice. There are indeed some rays of sunshine in the present school-choice skies.

House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-TX) on June 4, 1997, introduced the District of Columbia Student Opportunity Scholarships Act to provide tuition costs for kindergarten through 12th grade D.C. kids who are now stuck in the city’s failing public schools. After visiting Holy Redeemer Catholic elementary school in urban Washington, D.C., the Majority Leader stated that “private schools, like the one I visited, provide opportunities for a quality education in a safe environment that are absent in too many public schools.” Scholarships under this plan are reserved for those families marginally above the poverty level and below it.

During the press conference unveiling Armey’s bill, Kellyanne Fitzpatrick released a survey conducted in the spring of 1997 by the Polling Company showing that “fully 64 percent of Washingtonians said they would send their kids to private school if they had the option, and if money were not an issue.” Consistent with this finding, an increasing number of urban minority parents view parochial school choice as a savior for their children as the condition in inner-city schools grows progressively worse. The aforementioned Gallup Poll found that 62 percent of blacks nationally support private school vouchers.

The much-loved Mother Theresa told the world that she dedicated her life to helping the poor because she saw Jesus in every one of their faces. Without a doubt, this Christian spirit of charity is behind many of the efforts to provide better education for the poor.

A uniquely heart-warming endeavor dubbed R.I.S.E. is being undertaken by a Brown University Medical School professor, Dr. Kevin Vigilante. Rhode Islanders Sponsoring Education raises money to send high-risk children—those with drug-addicted or incarcerated single parents—to private and parochial schools with the aim that a new environment and the care of a mentor will break the intergenerational cycle of urban poverty. A similar program called “I have a Dream” in New York City increased high school graduation rates from 20 percent to 70 percent.

Most private-school choice initiatives are fiercely opposed by teacher unions and civil liberties groups because of the respective threats to job security and the perceived crumbling of the so-called wall separating church and state—but to what good? Because the Roman Catholic Church is by far the largest private education provider in the United States with more than 2.5 million students in approximately 8,300 schools, many young lives and souls can be positively changed by making these institutions available to the less-fortunate on a grand scale.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church quotes St. John Chrysostom as stating, “Not to enable the poor to share in our goods is to steal from them and deprive them of life.” If we as a nation truly believe in traditional American values such as the right to life, liberty, or the freedom to better one’s condition, there is no better avenue than by providing a fair chance for a good education. The sorry state of many government schools necessitates that this chance be provided through the freedom to choose parochial schools.

Author

  • Brett M. Decker

    At the time this article was published, Brett M. Decker was national political reporter for Evans and Novak "Inside Report" and producer for "Insights With Robert Novak" on National Empowerment Television.

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