As Election Day nears, the debate around school choice and Amendment 2 is heating up. It is essential that we are clear about what this amendment would do and why the Catholic Church supports it.
As we have seen this debate play out, we have encountered arguments that Amendment 2 does not align with Church teaching, that the bishops are mistaken in their support and are not fulfilling the Church’s mission to care for the poor and defend the common good when they encourage Catholics to vote in favor of the amendment.
This argument misrepresents both Church teaching and the record of Kentucky’s bishops in promoting policies that advance the common good.
The bishops, through the Catholic Conference of Kentucky, have long supported legislators’ efforts to enact a more progressive tax system that will enable Kentucky to fully meet all of our obligations. CCK also supports numerous initiatives to protect the vulnerable, lift up the marginalized, expand access to health care, and more fully protect and respect the dignity of each and every human person.
Church teaching is clear that empowering families to make educational choice for their children is also a matter of justice.
The Church teaches that parents are the primary educators of their children. The state has an important role to play in supporting them in fulfilling that responsibility.
Pope St. Paul IV was very explicit on the policy implications of this principle when he taught that, as a matter of distributive justice, public policy must ensure a quality education for all children and also enable all parents to be “truly free to choose according to their conscience the schools they want for their children.”
Pope Francis has clearly affirmed this teaching. In “Amoris Laetitia,” the Holy Father’s major document on the family, he recognizes the education of children to be the duty and right of parents and, with regard to government’s role, says, “The State offers educational programmes in a subsidiary way, supporting the parents in their indeclinable role; parents themselves enjoy the right to choose freely the kind of education — accessible and of good quality — which they wish to give their children in accordance with their convictions.”
The school choice programs the bishops support, such as HB 563 in the 2021 legislative session, are focused on helping low-income families enjoy the same options as higher income families already do. We already have school choice for those who can choose what school district they live in, or who are fortunate enough to have access to a well-funded non-public school that can offer assistance.
Fortunately, we also have many excellent public schools serving their students well. But, there are also many children who are in environments that simply do not work for them, and whose families lack the means to get them into schools where they can thrive.
The government, and by extension all of us, have an obligation to support a robust, well-funded public education system, and also enact programs that empower parents to perform the duties that are rightfully theirs. These are not contradictory obligations, and we can’t hold one hostage to the other. We have to do both.
Amendment 2 does not represent the end of the process. It is a necessary step to correct for an unfortunate Supreme Court decision that prevents programs like HB 563 from providing help to low-income students in both public and private schools. I encourage all Catholics to help Kentucky take this step by supporting Amendment 2 in November.
Jason Hall is the executive director of the Catholic Conference of Kentucky
