Monday, January 30, 2012
Archbishop Chaput on school choice and Catholic Schools Week
Philadelphia's Archbishop Chaput kicks off Catholic Schools Week with a punchy essay in support of school choice. He ends with this:
When vouchers stalled, yet again, in the Pennsylvania house last fall, a frustrated Catholic school teacher friend of mine said “Catholics are suckers.” I don’t believe that. But then, I’m new in town. If we Philadelphia Catholics love our Catholic schools, and we obviously do, then the time to get active and focused is now. We need to begin pressing our state lawmakers to pass the school choice legislation — including vouchers and expanded EITC credits — that’s currently pending in Harrisburg. And we need to do it this week, today, right now. I plan to do that. I hope you’ll join me.
Indeed.
https://mirrorofjustice.blogs.com/mirrorofjustice/2012/01/archbishop-chaput-on-school-choice-and-catholic-schools-week.html
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What I don't understand is the reasoning that vouchers do not violate the First Amendment by using government funds to support religious education, because the money goes to the parents, and the parents decide. So the state is not directly funding religion. On the other hand, the "contraceptive mandate" violates the conscience of Catholic employers because they are allegedly forced to pay for contraception. It seems to me that if providing tax dollars to parents, many or most of whom are going to spend the money on religious schools, is not government funding of religious education, then providing insurance that covers contraception—coverage that the insured may or may not use according to their own consciences—is not the employer paying for contraception.