Recent letters to the editor discussed the goal of making Catholic schools “affordable and accessible” to non-Catholics. Donald Reitz (CR, March 12) raises several issues. Is it prejudicial to deny non-Catholics access to Catholic schools? Of course, it is – otherwise public taxes would be used to fund Catholic schools and they would be called public schools. Should any student valuing a religious education be entitled to attend Catholic schools? Are we asking Catholic parishioners to “give just a little bit more” to encourage students to be good Baptists, Lutherans, Muslims, etc? Isn’t that the purpose of churches, synagogues and mosques? If evangelizing of the Catholic faith is the objective (as I assume is meant by Donald Reitz), then it seems appropriate to evaluate such a program against the stress put upon the Catholic school system by trying to make it “affordable and accessible” to all.
Such a program may be demonstrably worthwhile, but a cost/benefit analysis should be considered. Maybe, this additional charity/tax money requested of Catholics could best be applied to the vast numbers of needy Catholic students. We know that many of them value a religious education, if that is the criterion for entrance.