OPINION:
The National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA) reports that among many factors driving a 6.4% decrease in Catholic-school enrollment, the difficulty in paying tuition fees (which average over $5,000 for grades K-8 and more than $10,000 for secondary school) is forcing parents to remove their children from Catholic schools. Ironically, the average annual per-pupil cost for a public-school education is around $12,000, ranging from a low of $7,800 in Utah to a high of $24,000 in New York.
Parents of Catholic-school students already fork over funds for these public schools via taxation. Sending their children to a Catholic school is an additional cost. Imagine if they instead received a voucher from that pot of money funded with education tax dollars which could then be used to pay for the tuition at a Catholic school?
Sadly, this will never happen. The ultimate goal of progressives is to kill off any form of education — particularly one based on religious, moral values — that threatens their ability to indoctrinate our youth.
PATRICK MCGINN
California, Md.
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