Protecting public schools is not anti-Catholic

By SJ Otto

Every once in a while The Wichita Eagle runs an article from some right-wing nut. This Sunday they did just that, with; “SCOTUS has a chance to do away with a big barrier to school choice.” They don’t provide an actual author to this piece. They just say it is from The Orange County Register:

“The U.S. Supreme Court may soon decide whether or not to overturn an antiquated series of laws based in racism and anti-Catholic sentiment that stand in the way of parents making good decisions about their kids’ education.”

When they say choice, what they really mean is that taxpayers as myself should contribute our tax money to a religious institution. 

What he calls “anti-Catholic sentiment” is well deserved in this case. The Catholic Church supports anti-abortion laws. They even go as far as trying to hold up Medicaid expansion until lawmakers agree that no tax money will go for paying for poor people’s abortions. To put it mildly the Catholic Church is a political institution. Before my mother died, she went to some meetings that church members had to discuss various political positions of the church. My mother was a devout Catholic who took her religion quite seriously. She was also a Democrat. She told me she found it difficult to belong to that church group because it was dominated by Republicans. While my mother did not disagree with the church’s position on abortion, she complained that there were other issue and the church should not just back Republicans because of that one issue.

The Catholic Church has taken many political issues over the years. Today the church has a fairly progressive pope, Pope Francis. Before him was Pope John Paul II. He was very conservative and did all he could do to destroy what has been labeled Liberation Theology. He also collaborated with Ronald Reagan and the CIA to bring down the government in Poland. When I was young I went to a Catholic School and I was told that the church is no longer a political institution. That turned out to be a lie. The Catholic Church has been very political and takes part in many attempts to promote conservative causes.

The author of this article tries to paint this issue as racist and anti-Catholic. He goes to great lengths to do this. He also trashed teachers’ unions and public schools in general:

“When a constitutional amendment failed, states began passing these laws individually to the glee of southern-state racists who found the laws useful in marginalizing African-American and Jewish students. Even the Ku Klux Klan was a supporter. And sadly, whether by accident or by design, California’s Blaine Amendment has the same disproportionate effect on minority students in lower-income areas by cutting off an option many parents would likely want.

Blaine Amendments have blocked school voucher programs that would help parents with kids in struggling schools. Teachers unions and other powerful forces want to protect the status quo, while the status quo is exactly what desperate parents are trying to avoid.

Will Swaim, president of the California Policy Center, said this decision could be a “game changer,” adding “With so many students stuck in failing public schools, we need all hands on deck now — not in 10 or 20 years when millions more will have passed through terrible union-run schools. Faith-based schools could step into the breach immediately.”

According to this writer, public schools are terrible institutions that don’t work. And he insinuates that teacher’s unions and the Ku Klux Klan are on the same team. This is nothing more than an attack on our schools and our public school teachers. Rather than putting more money and support to our public institutions he wants the taxpayers to have their money go to religious schools. Even if the religions were not political we should not have to support institutions that represent things we don’t believe in. I was a Catholic, but I left the church years ago. The main reason I left was due to the politics of the church. I am agnostic so my politics are more important than my ideas of religion.

So for me to have to support any religion with my tax dollars is an insult. It is also insulting to force me to support a religious institution that supports reactionary politics. It is also an insult for a pro-union and pro-public school person. I still work for the public school system and that system works fine when the public at large supports it. Trying to tear our public schools down for the benefit of private religious schools in an insult all together and has nothing to do with racism or being anti-Catholic. As long as the Catholic Church involves itself in to reactionary politics I have every right to be anti-Catholic.

Pix from American Anti-Catholicism.