More ‘Rethinking’ of School Voucher Issue

Re: “Crisis in Education Prompts a Rethinking of School Voucher Plan,” commentary by Abigail McCarthy, Sept. 11:

In general, I might say that I found your article rather biased and lacking the balance and needed research that would justify the term rethinking .

You ask if it is “morally defensible (for non-public schools) to accept . . . money at the expense of the common schools?” Quite a few parents I have talked to consider some help from the state as really a question of justice. They believe that they are doubly taxed, first to help pay for all children attending public schools and then to pay for their children’s attendance at Catholic schools. They would not consider some assistance from the state a case of ill-gotten gains.

Later in your article, you added a rather uncomplimentary characterization of some church leaders as “fomenting” the taxpayers’ revolt. I do not think that is fair, and any of the pastors with whom I associate do not denigrate the public schools. Most of the ones I know see the public schools the way I do, as a vital part of our children’s future and of our nation’s health and, of course, in need of help.

Where I live now, the public schools are excellent and I do all that I can to support them. But I also know that Catholic schools are very often the only ones that really function in certain sections of Los Angeles and, since I had much to do with arranging financing for them while I was on the Archdiocesan Finance Council, I know the pain and the worry of the pastors and principals of these schools who fret over where the next dollar will come from.

No, Ms. McCarthy, pastors are not ogres bent on the destruction of the public schools. They try their best to do what they can for both their people and for their children, and that best is certainly not to be achieved by the demise of the public schools. Even some pastors, myself included, wonder aloud whether the voucher initiative would really be a help or a hindrance.

FATHER PETER A. O’REILLY

St. Maximilian Kolbe

Catholic Church, Oak Park