Catholic Schools Vouch for Latino Kids

SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS, Aug. 14—In the heavily Latino Edgewood School District 871, students have been given private-school scholarships paid for by area businesses.

The situation there highlights the issues involved in voucher debates nationwide: public schools complain that they are losing money because of the scholarships, while thousands of poor families are eager to abandon well-funded but ineffective district schools. Voucher dollars are causing the school district to compete in ways it otherwise did not, and diocesan schools are a major beneficiary of the new students, whom they welcome while worrying about how it will affect their Catholic identity.

About 616 awardees have shared $3 million in tuition payments so far, officials with the Children's Educational Opportunity Foundation (CEO) told the paper. CEO gives vouchers of $2,000-$4,000 to families, said the report. Meanwhile, the school district complains it stands to lose $6 million in projected state funding next year as a consequence — though admitting that the state of Texas will still provide it more than nine times that amount.

What's more, even though CEO had to turn away most of the 1,479 applicants and more than 4,500 phone calls, the popular vouchers have caused a competitive response. Edgewood has opened up special vocational and other programs to outside districts to attract more students. One district board member even complained about the competition. He was quoted expressing resentment that “these kids are being experimented with.”

The archdiocesan superintendent, Dale Hoyt, claims enrollment is rising noticeably in Catholic schools in the area. He wants to reassure state critics, he told the paper, “as long as it does not take away the Catholic identity, as long as it does not have a negative effect on the purpose and philosophy of Catholic schools.”

Scandal Drove Catholic Supporters from Clinton

NATIONAL JOURNAL, Aug. 15—When Christopher Matthews recently asked Leon Panetta what he thought about the affair between the president and one of his interns, the former White House chief of staff answered, “Chris, you and I have … a standard that goes back to our backgrounds.” He said as a Catholic, he considered it reprehensible.

That made William Powers of the National Journal notice something: it seems that many of the president's former allies who dropped their support of him during the scandal share one thing in common.

“Is it any coincidence that so many of the commentators who have chosen to signal their unhappiness with Mr. Clinton, despite their ideological comfort with him, come out of the same Church?” he asked in his report.

He listed several Catholic detractors: CNBC's Matthews, New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, The Washington Post's Michael Kelly and Mary McGrory, PBS's Mark Shields, ABC's Cokie Roberts, NBC's Tim Russert, and former White House Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers, each of whom has criticized the president regarding the scandal. Matthews gives Catholic morality the credit for his opposition.

Roberts gives the Sacrament of Penance some of the credit, too. Growing up Catholic, she is quoted saying, “You just hear over and over, ‘You take responsibility. You did it.’”

In contrast, she called Clinton's begrudging admission of lying to the country but not to the independent counsel a “mea minima culpa.”

Elected Catholics in Michigan Told to Defend Life

PRNEWSWIRE, Aug. 17—The Catholic Campaign for America's Michigan Chapter told Catholic public officials they have a duty to defeat the so-called “Marian's Friends” initiative.

The law would legalize assisted suicide, repealing the state's ban. It is a centerpiece of the gubernatorial campaign of Geoffery Fieger, whom the state's Democratic party has vigorously supported despite much controversy.

Fieger, the lawyer who successfully defended suicide-specialist Dr. Jack Kevorkian, has been widely quoted ridiculing the Pope; saying Orthodox Jews are like Nazis; and calling Jesus a “goofball who was nailed to a cross.”

The Catholic Campaign named Catholic politicians and quoted Pope John Paul II's words in The Gospel of Life that prohibit them from supporting the measure.

“In the case of an intrinsically unjust law, such as a law permitting abortion or euthanasia, it is therefore never licit to obey it, or to take part in a propaganda campaign in favor of such a law, or vote for it,” said the encyclical.

Robert Mylod, co-chairman of the Catholic Campaign for America, named these Catholic elected officials in Michigan: U.S. Rep. John Dingle, David Bonier, Joe Knollenberg, Dale Kildee, Gov. John Engler, State Attorney General Frank Kelly, Wayne County Executive Ed McNamara, and Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer.

Gov. Engler opposes assisted suicide. (See related “InPerson,” page 1.)