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The right to choose the best education possible
Education is a treasure that never loses its value, and it’s the richest inheritance parents can leave to their children — even more so if it forms not only the mind, but the spirit and moral character. It is the best gift anyone can receive. The Archdiocese of San Antonio makes a constant effort to offer this kind of education to parents through Catholic schools. Thanks to the generosity of individuals and institutions dedicated to support Catholic education, some 15,000 students now benefit from archdiocesan and private Catholic schools every year.
The church is never satisfied with just delivering knowledge through her schools. Good academics are essential, but education doesn’t stop there. The goal of Catholic education is to assist parents in the formation of their children in moral and academic excellence.
Catholic education is not only the best option, but also the most natural one for our Catholic community. This is why our local church continually looks for ways to help parents financially, from her own resources, in choosing the kind of education they can offer their children. For exactly the same reason, the church, in general, supports laws that give parents the freedom they deserve in choosing where to direct funds from their taxes when deciding the education their children will receive.
In Texas, and all over the United Sates, people are talking about the right of parents to choose where their children attend school. This public debate points out the inherent inequality that exists when lack of money creates the obstacle to parental choice.
Many have seen that one way to help parents of limited means, but who desire to offer their children the best possible education, is through the so-called parental choice in education or education vouchers.
The system of parents’ free choice would permit all families, regardless of financial status, to finally take control of where they can educate their children without staying at the mercy of the inconsistent quality of the public schools where they are presently obliged to send them.
Prosperity is more than material success. Obviously, a good education helps young people to make a better living and advance in the world, and that’s very important. But real prosperity is more than money. It always involves the peace and happiness that come from moral maturity, personal dignity and service to higher goals. A fully rounded education is the key to enabling the next generation to “prosper” as a community — not only as an economic presence, but as a moral influence, transmitting their Catholic values and culture to American public life.
In order to achieve this goal, families should never be satisfied with an education that simply accumulates facts and data.
Education is a process of forming the whole person, and for Catholics in a special way, the people we are — both as individual persons and as a community — flows from the deep Catholic sources of our culture.
Catholic social teachings and also the wider Judeo-Christian tradition that are found in the origins of our nation have recognized always that the education of children belongs to the parents.
It makes sense that they have several options provided by the state, the church or private organizations.
Indeed, in the encyclical “Centesimus Annus,” Pope John Paul II pointed out that “it is urgent to promote political initiatives not only in favor of the family, but also social policies that have as their principal objective the family itself, helping it through the designation of adequate resources and effective legal instruments that help ... for the education of the children.”
It is important to understand that the church is not opposed to public education, but instead believes that parental choice provides society with a more just model in which families can choose
I know many public school teachers who deserve the highest praise of humanity and academia. In addition, many public schools are highly effective.
But many parents would like — and today they can do nothing about it — a different option when the public school does not operate adequately, or when the content of what is taught there does not coincide with the values that they want for their children.
Parents’ free choice of education would mean many changes. But for each possible risk presented by its detractors there are innumerable advantages.
Parents are the truly responsible parties and they have the best interest in the welfare of their children.
Now that the Legislature is discussing the possibility of starting a pilot program in Texas, it is important to remind the legislators that a law for parents’ free choice of education is a true act of justice.
Let us pray to the Lord and to our Mother, the Virgin of Guadalupe, so that when this question is discussed in Austin, our representatives will act like good parents, and above all guarantee the best future for the children and young people of our state.
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