Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s position on school choice programs has some Catholics concerned about what a Biden win could mean for the future of Catholic-based education.
And supporters of Catholic schools aren’t just worried a Biden presidency could damage religious freedoms, but it could also prevent the academic success of students.
Washington County Supervisor Denis Kelling told the Washington County Times that he attended both public and Catholic schools, and is a huge supporter of Catholic schools. He said he knows the academic benefits Catholic schools can provide.
Kelling was struggling in public school before his parents sent him to Catholic school, he told the Times. Yet, not only did Catholic school get him back on track, but by the time he returned to public school a year later, he was ahead of his public school peers by about a year.
“In one year, they put me about two years from where I was,” he told the Times. “They do a lot with very little.”
Yet, if Biden’s preference were made a reality, Catholic schools would be doing what they do with even less, CatholicVote CEO Brian Burch told the Milwaukee City Wire.
While Biden wouldn’t be able to unilaterally shut down state initiatives such as the Wisconsin Parental Choice Program, Berch said Biden would have the means to pressure the state into a position where it could be forced to end the program, according to reporting by Milwaukee City Wire.
The most direct action a president could take would be to direct the U.S. Department of Education to stop providing federal funding to states with student voucher programs, according to Milwaukee City Wire. Additionally, if Biden is able to appoint a U.S. Supreme Court Justice, he could seek an appointee who would share his stance against permitting school choice in certain circumstances.
Kelling said he supports school choice programs and families sending their children to Catholic schools as a value to taxpayers as well.
“I believe that it’s probably the best education that you can get for the money,” he told the Times.
But being able to take advantage of that education value is not something readily available to low-income families, whose children have the most to gain.
“We have a lot of failing schools, especially in the inner city,” Kelling said of Milwaukee Public Schools. “Having an option for children to get from those schools to a school where they have a graduation rate that far exceeds MPS – they have a college-bound rate that far exceeds MPS – to get your student to have the opportunity when you don’t have the financial means yourself to do it, to still be able to do that, I think is excellent.”
Ultimately, a candidate who opposes school choice is not a candidate Kelling could choose, he said.
“I think part of what America is about is having the ability for competition, and I think Catholic schools make public schools do better,” he told the Times.
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