New and Timely Information - National Catholic Educational Association

2008 Presidential Election Education Positons of NCEA

NCEA Statement Submitted to the Democratic and Republican National Platform Committee

(separate party-specific statements were submitted to each committee but are combined here)

This statement is being submitted on behalf of the National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA), the largest private professional educational association in the world. Founded in 1904, the Association's membership represents more than 200,000 educators serving over 7.6 million students in Catholic education at every level: pre-school, elementary and secondary schools, colleges and universities, seminaries and parish religious education programs for public school children.

NCEA is committed to the goal of improving the quality of education for all American children, particularly those 2.2 million enrolled in the more than 7,300 Catholic elementary and secondary schools that serve this nation. America's Catholic schools serve a diverse population: more than half of these schools are located in urban and inner-city neighborhoods, serving children from low and middle income families; 14.1% of the students are non-Catholic; the minority enrollment nation-wide is 28.9%; these percentages rise significantly in most inner city schools. The academic success of Catholic schools, particularly with the disadvantaged, has been well documented by several independent research studies.

From the earliest settlements of this country, Catholic schools have served the common good of the nation and will continue to do so in a manner which recognizes that all children have an inalienable right to a quality education that is responsive to the rights of parents as the primary educators of their children. In 1925, the United States Supreme Court, in Pierce v. Society of Sisters, established as a fundamental principle of liberty that the child is not the mere creature of the state and excluded any general power of the state to force children to attend public institutions, consequently upholding the right of parents to choose other means of educating their children. As Catholic educators, the NCEA membership believes that all children are entitled to attend any school, religious, private or public, which will help them to achieve their full potential and that such choice is a universal parental right regardless of race, creed, neighborhood or the ability to pay.

The attainment of full and fair parental choice in education is NCEA's primary public policy objective. We advocate the enactment of legislation and policies which will maximize the quality of educational opportunities for all of America's children, particularly the children of the poor, by insuring that all parents have the financial capability to exercise the right to choose the school which is best for their children. We believe that educational choice can promote academic excellence by creating an educational climate that is respectful of parental concerns while fostering a competitive climate that results in greater school accountability to parents. NCEA members believe that the needs of students and their parents supersede those of entrenched educational bureaucracies. Public interest polls unfailingly demonstrate that parents overwhelmingly support full and fair choice. Furthermore, any publicly funded educational choice programs must include religiously affiliated schools if all parents, particularly those with low or middle incomes, are to have meaningful options.

Most parents who currently choose Catholic or other private schools for their children exercise this constitutional right at significant cost and personal sacrifice; they bear a dual burden of paying school tuition while also contributing their share of taxes to support public schools. The education of children in Catholic schools provides more than a $19.8 billion annual tax savings to the American people. We believe that government financial assistance to parents, in the form of tax relief, scholarships or vouchers, to enable them to choose any school, including religiously affiliated ones, will withstand First Amendment challenges. We urge the continuance of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, the first federally-funded scholarship program for under-served students that is changing the lives of those almost 2,000 student participants.

As educators, we support the national efforts at comprehensive educational reform for all children in all schools. We are deeply concerned about public school reform efforts and urge that they focus not only on the means to achieve academic success but also on the moral and social development necessary for children to become responsible citizens. We support equitable participation of all students and teachers in the variety of programs aimed at improving the teaching-learning process. We endorse federal assistance programs that address the particular needs of all disadvantaged and disabled children and therefore, support federal and local policies which provide for the equitable delivery of these services to children in both public and private schools.

The NCEA membership and the millions of families they serve are deeply concerned about the education of America's children and are eager to learn how the Democratic Party/Republican will address their concerns in the education portion of the platform. Our members are looking for political leadership that will give families the opportunity to secure the best possible education for their children. It is important to them to know that our national leaders enthusiastically support efforts to empower all parents to choose the education they believe best meets the needs of their children -- whether that be in a public, private or religiously-affiliated institutions. We strongly urge that the Democratic/Republican Party Platform include this concern as the linchpin of the education plank.

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July, 2008

Text of letters submitted to the political candidates and the party platform committee chairpersons

The National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA) is the largest private professional educational association in the world. Founded in 1904, the Association's membership represents more than 200,000 educators serving over 7.6 million students in Catholic education at every level: pre-school, elementary and secondary schools, colleges and universities, seminaries and parish religious education programs for public school children.

As you prepare the 2008 election platform, we are sending the enclosed statement that expresses the education positions that NCEA urges you to consider. The provision of a quality education for all of America’s children should be of paramount importance in this election. We remind you that the United States is proud to be a pluralistic society and that pluralism should extend to the diversity of educational institutions in the country.

As many of our inner-city Catholic schools, serving hundreds of thousands of poor, minority and non-Catholic students, are struggling to remain open, there are federal programs and opportunities available to these children that we wish to see continued in the next administration. They are detailed in the statement and highlighted here:

Full and fair parental choice for all parents through expanded federal and state programs permitting tax credits for donations to scholarship-granting originations (such as in Florida, Pennsylvania and Arizona) as well as scholarship and voucher initiatives.
The reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (NCLB) so as to promote the equitable participation of students and teachers in religious/private schools.
Greater inclusion of students with disabilities in IDEA programs who currently have minimal opportunities because their parents chose a religious school.

On behalf of NCEA and its members, I thank you for your consideration of these important issues. We urge your inclusion of them in the party platform. Please call on us if we can provide further clarity or testimony on these issues.

Sincerely,

Karen M. Ristau, EdD

President

Enclosure: NCEA Statement to Platform Committee

White House Summit on Inner-City Children and Faith-Based Schools

April 24, 2008

Disturbed by the fact that inner-city faith-based schools are closing "at an alarming rate," the President called on Congress and elected officials at the state and local levels to help preserve such schools and to extend "lifelines of learning" to the children they serve." He stated that “many inner-city children across our Nation, America's faith-based schools provide an option for a better future. As we continue working to improve urban public schools through the No Child Left Behind Act, we must also work to preserve important educational alternatives for underserved students attending chronically underperforming public schools.”

The President received great applause when he stated “ensuring that faith-based schools can continue to serve inner-city children requires a commitment from the federal government”. He noted that the federal government uses taxpayers' money to empower faith-based organizations to help meet critical needs throughout the country in social services, health care and higher education services, and said that “we should use the same philosophy to provide federal funds to help inner-city families find greater choices in educating their children.”

"We have an interest in the health of these centers of excellence; it's in the country's interest to get beyond the debate of public/private, to recognize this is a critical national asset that provides a critical part of our nation's fabric.”

He reiterated his proposals outlined in the State of the Union Address calling for the enactment of a Pell Grant for Kids for K-12 education and the reauthorization of D.C. Choice Incentive Act that created the Washington's Opportunity Scholarship program, which has helped more than 2,600 children in D.C. find new hope at a faith-based or other non-public schools.

NCEA was represented at the Summit by (right to left) Karen Ristau, President, Dale McDonald, PBVM, Regina Haney and Barbara Keebler (not pictured).

Dr. Ronald Bowes, Assistant Superintendent, Diocese of Pittsburgh, addressed the benefits of the Pennsylvania corportae tax credit program while former D.C. mayor Anthony Williams listened.

Dr. Mary McDonald, Superintendent of Schools, Diocese of Memphis, (far left) showcased the Jubilee Schools renewal in Memphis

Rev. Joseph M. O'Keeffe, SJ, Dean of the Lynch School of Education at Boston College addressed

the decline of inner city Catholic schools

The text of the President’s address and other information on the summit is available at http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/04/20080424-2.html

Operation Focus

In conjunction with the Council for American Private Education (CAPE), NCEA and the other member organizations are working to encourage the private school community across the country to communicate with key members of Congress about legislative issues of concern to religious and independent schools. The program is called “Operation Focus” because it focuses on specific lawmakers and enlists the help of specific constituents within their states or districts.

In the coming months, as legislative issues are addressed by the members of the House and Senate key education and appropriations committees, Operation Focus will be lobbying them on behalf of our schools. This is a “grass tops” approach that utilizes the influence of persons with some relationship to the targeted legislators to press the issues on behalf of religious and private schools.

We are asking you to self identify or to identify persons connected with your school who might be especially effective in communicating with a member of Congress who is a focus of the project. If you can identify such persons, please help us by asking them to complete the brief online survey explaining their connection with the legislator so that, if they are willing, they may be asked to advocate for a specific issue important to religious and independent schools.

Further information and the survey may be found at http://www.capenet.org/focus.html

Proposed White House Initiatives to Empower Parents With More Choices For Their Children's Education

In the 2008 State of the Union address on January President Bush proposed three new initiatives relating to faith-based schools:

Pell Grants for Kids: a $300 million scholarship program to help poor children reach their full potential. Like the Federal Pell Grant program, which students can use to attend the public or private college of their choice, Pell Grants for Kids would offer scholarships to low-income children in underperforming elementary and secondary schools, including high schools with significant dropout rates. These scholarships would help with the costs of attending an out-of-district public school or nearby private or faith-based school.

21st Century Learning Opportunities: President Bush asked Congress to fund $800 million for scholarships for afterschool programs -- 21st Century Learning Opportunities. These scholarships will give parents the opportunity to enroll their children in high-quality after-school and summer school programs aimed at increasing student achievement, including programs run by faith-based and community organizations.

White House Summit on Inner city Children and Faith-based Schools: The President announced that a summit will be held this spring in Washington, D.C. He noted “non-public schools, including faith-based schools, have helped to educate generations of low-income students; however, they are disappearing at an alarming rate. As we continue working to improve urban public schools through the No Child Left Behind Act, we must also work to preserve the critically important educational alternatives for underserved students attending chronically underperforming public schools.”

This Summit will help increase awareness of the challenges faced by low-income students in the inner cities and address the role of non-public schools, including faith-based schools, in meeting the needs of low-income inner city students. The Summit will unite educators and community leaders to develop local strategies to partner with these schools in serving our Nation's urban students. The Summit will bring together national, State, and local leaders in education, policymaking, research, philanthropy, business, and community development to:

Draw greater attention to the lack of high-quality educational alternatives available to low-income urban students;
Highlight the impact non-public schools, including faith-based schools, have had in the education of youth in America's inner cities;
Increase awareness of the challenges facing these schools; and
Identify innovative solutions to the challenges facing these schools so they can continue serving their communities.