Gravissimum Educationis and School Choice

In the previous blog post “Four Principles”, we looked at the four basic principles Church teaching provides as a moral framework for assessing policy positions and political participation generally. In this post, we will examine how these principles can be applied to a key education policy issue: school choice programs.

The Church has long supported school choice policies (sometimes referred to as educational choice or educational pluralism). Most commonly, these policies promote educational options for families through tax credit or publicly funded scholarship programs that allow parents to choose the best school for their child. In 1965, as part of the Second Vatican Council, the Church issued Gravissimum Educationis (GE). This document provides a rich outline of the Church’s teaching on Christian education and provides sound rationale within the framework of the four principles for supporting school choice policies.

GE opens by declaring that “all men of every race, condition and age, since they enjoy the dignity of a human being, have an inalienable right to an education that is in keeping with their ultimate goal, their ability, their sex, and the culture and tradition of their country, and also in harmony with their fraternal association with other peoples in the fostering of true unity and peace on earth.”ⁱ School choice policies promote human dignity by protecting the right of all people to obtain a quality education from a school that best suits their particular needs.

GE also notes that parents are the “primary and principal educators” of their children.ⁱⁱ Through the family, children “find their first experience of a wholesome human society and of the Church” and “are gradually led to a companionship with their fellowmen and with the people of God.”ⁱⁱⁱ However, while the family has the primary duty of educating children, it also needs help from society. Therefore, the family, the Church, and various levels of state and local government all have their appropriate place in the implementation, governance, and imparting of education. In short, education requires subsidiarity. More from GE:

Therefore, the state must protect the right of children to an adequate school education, check on the ability of teachers and the excellence of their training, look after the health of the pupils, and in general, promote the whole school project. But it must always keep in mind the principle of subsidiarity so that there is no kind of school monopoly, for this is opposed to the native rights of the human person, to the development and spread of culture, to the peaceful association of citizens, and to the pluralism that exists today in ever so many societies.^iv

School choice promotes the common good by allowing students to obtain an education in an environment where they are able to flourish intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually. Whether that environment is at a public school, charter school, private school, or home education program, school choice programs allow students to enter that environment. Better educated students lead to better-educated societies which hopefully leads to a more productive and

peaceful society and a more just distribution of goods. Additionally, these programs provide an opportunity for students to attend religious schools that teach and promote the Christian faith, thus supporting their spiritual formation and journey towards their ultimate fulfillment in God.

Finally, school choice programs promote solidarity because they primarily serve low and middle-income families and disabled children. Without school choice programs these families may not have the financial means to enroll their children in a private school or even have the option to send their child to a different school whether it be public, charter, or private. If only one option exists and that option is a failing school or a school that is a poor fit for the student, a parent has no choice but to accept that substandard education. This goes against the parents’ “primary and inalienable right and duty to educate their children.”^v Situations like this should always be avoided, and all parents should have true freedom in their choice of schools for their children.^vi

In Florida, we are on the cutting edge of the school choice movement. Our state administers many different school choice programs, including the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship, the Family Empowerment Scholarship, the McKay Scholarship, the Gardiner Scholarship, the Hope Scholarship, Reading Scholarship Accounts, the Opportunity Scholarship Program, the Voluntary Prekindergarten Program, and the School Readiness Program. During the 2019-2020 school year, over 176,000 Florida students received a state scholarship, and in Catholic schools alone over 3,000 families participated in the VPK Program.

Through the consistent moral framework of human dignity, the common good, subsidiarity, and solidarity, the FCCB is able to properly evaluate these programs. From the start, the FCCB has supported the development, enactment, and implementation of these programs in accord with the principles outlined above. Over the past twenty years, these programs have expanded educational opportunities in Florida and helped to provide freedom in educational choice for all students and their parents. We look forward to the continued development of these programs in light of the four principles of Catholic Social Teaching and the further expansion of educational choice in Florida.

i Gravissimum Educationis no. 1.
ii Id at no. 3
iii Id.
iv Gravissimum Educationis no. 6.
v Id.
vi Id.

Mike Barrett is the FCCB associate for education. Follow him on Twitter @fccb_education.
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