I read with great interest the article about the Opportunity Scholarship Act (OSA). As a product of Catholic schools myself I have always felt a great sense of appreciation and debt to the priests, nuns and lay teachers who dedicated themselves to my education. One aspect of the OSA should give even its most ardent supporters pause, however. Nowhere in the article was there any mention of what influences the state would expect to exert on curriculum. Whenever there is outside money involved there is bound to be some degree of influence expected and eventually asserted. We should carefully consider that these funds will be administrated by entities that may be apathetical about or even hostile to the concept of Catholic schools maintaining their strong Catholic identity. We must never allow our parochial schools to become what so many of our colleges and universities have already become, “Catholic in name only.” What, for example, will the diocese do should the Department of Education mandate that any school receiving funds must teach the “responsible” use of contraception or that they must teach the equality of same-sex unions with marriage? Higher Catholic school enrollment is good but at what price? It would be an unimaginable travesty if after Catholic schools set out to change the world, we found instead that the world changed them.
Ian McCrane
Mantua
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