A personal note: I’m a Catholic. The Church’s politics make me crazy for a number of reasons. I’m not referring in this post even to economics, but to the Archdiocese of New Mexico’s position in support of a massive new pre-K entitlement. Advocates point to some very old, highly resource-intensive pre-k “experiments” from the 1960s, but conveniently ignore existing, large-scale, state programs that have been operating for decades in Oklahoma and Georgia.
So, the church is advocating for policies that would, we believe, waste billions of dollars in the Permanent Fund on a pre-k program. But that’s not what really drives me nuts about the Church’s policy stances. It is that the Church is not willing to put a fraction of the time and resources into promoting school choice (specifically, tax credits) which are now in place in 14 states (see a detailed analysis here) and were last seriously considered in New Mexico in 2012 when liberal Democrats introduced bills to expand school choice.
A further indictment of the Church’s position is that the data on student performance in Catholic Schools is actually much better than the costly new pre-K program. A University of Chicago study found that urban African Americans attending Catholic schools are 26 percentage points more likely to graduate from high school and twice as likely to graduate from college as comparable students in public schools. Considering that such programs could actually SAVE tax dollars, it is nothing less than mind-blowing to me that the Church hasn’t endorsed tax credits for school choice wholeheartedly.
Perhaps it is true what they are saying about Allen Sanchez?
The problem that most people (including Catholics) have with Catholic church pronouncements (be generous to illegal aliens, expand preK schooling, etc) is that the PUBLIC taxpayer is picking up most of the tab – not the Catholic Church. The classic example is with illegal immigration. For every child of an illegal alien who attends public school in the U.S., the AVERAGE cost to taxpayers is $10,000 per child per year. How many children of illegal aliens is the Catholic Church paying all the tuition for to attend parochial schools in N.M. and elsewhere?
As for the expansion of the Pre-K programs, it would appear that the purpose is to draw in more illegals and more $ into the Church coffers at the expense of the 47% and our cultural integrity.
Preschool education is destructive of the family. Every effort must be made to support the family and get/keep fathers in the home and mothers there as much as possible. Families are the key to civilization and culture.
What has been representing itself as the Catholic church since Vatican II is not Catholic as it has repudiated its doctrine and dogma in favor of Marxism. For years now, the putative Roman Church has been asking Americans to violate civil law by supporting illegal immigration. This Church is evil. Allen Sanchez is just another salesman for it.
For any who are still supporting anything Novus Ordo, get away from it as fast as you can. Otherwise, your very soul is in grave peril. There are still non-co-opted Tridentine Masses and sacraments available. You can find them on the web.
Send your children to the so-called Catholic schools and risk the loss of their souls. The pollution of modernism is corrupting even the young.
The pre-K school program is nothing more than a glorified babysitting program that wastes lots and lots of taxpayer money. I don’t believe pre-K programs have proven any long term benefit to education. I also don’t think children 4 years of age and under are good school candidates. They are not able to focus very long, sit still and most important, retain the information. How many people remember much of their lives before age 5? It used to be that the 1/2 day kindergarten class was to get 5 year olds ready for “real school”. I think the old school system got it right when they decided on 5 years as a good starting point for schooling.