Letters: Auxiliary bishop responds
RE "Consolidation on the Table at Catholic Schools": I believe it is vitally important that we continue a positive discussion about the future of Catholic education, which illustrates why I gladly participated in your cover story about the challenges we face related to enrollment.
RE
"Consolidation on the Table at Catholic Schools"
:
I believe it is vitally important that we continue a positive discussion about the future of Catholic education, which illustrates why I gladly participated in your cover story about the challenges we face related to enrollment.
As I stated, we are firmly committed, despite the formidable challenges, to maintain the archdiocese's 100-year legacy of offering parents the option to provide their children a superior academic education accompanied by a daily focus on moral and spiritual development.
The word "option" is of critical importance. In a country that champions freedom, why are parents not free to choose what they believe is the best education option for their child?
Parents are the primary teachers and hold the ultimate responsibility for the successful transition of their child to adulthood. And while our state government certainly has an interest in education as a critical foundation of society, it shouldn't replace the role of a parent, especially in the critical decision of where to send a child to school. This is precisely why the Archdiocese of Philadelphia's Office of Catholic Education continues to support the concept of school choice to all parents through vouchers.
Opponents of vouchers and school choice contend that vouchers would eventually abolish public education. We are certainly not proponents of eroding parental access to public education. We're simply asking that Catholic education have an opportunity to compete with the free options, like public and charter schools.
We believe that free-market competition in education can succeed. That competition inspires excellence, and that vouchers could create a dynamic and student-centered environment where the best schools thrive - and failing schools either collapse or find themselves forced to make positive changes to remain open.
I'm not sure you'll find a parent in our region who wouldn't appreciate this approach.
Most Rev. Joseph P. McFadden
Auxiliary Bishop of Philadelphia