Why School Choice is a Catholic Imperative

 

by CAPP-USA

 

In the United States, school choice is an often-debated issue, reflecting deeper tensions about the role of government, parental rights, and the place of faith in education.

For Catholics, this debate is not simply political—it is moral and rooted in the Church’s social doctrine.

How Catholic Social Teaching Champions School Choice

Catholic Social Teaching (CST) offers a clear and principled framework for understanding school choice, emphasizing three key points:

1. Parents are the primary educators of their children.
2. The principle of subsidiarity governs how authority should be exercised.
3. Education is essential to the common good and integral human development.

From this foundation, the Church calls for educational systems that respect family autonomy, promote the dignity of every child, and ensure access for all—especially the poor.

School Choice Empowers Families

School choice refers to the freedom of parents to select the educational setting that best supports the holistic development of their children—whether through public, charter, private, parochial, homeschooling, or hybrid models.

This freedom enables families to ensure their children receive an education rooted in truth, virtue, and love, aligned with their moral and cultural convictions.

Parental Rights: The Church’s Unwavering Stance

Catholic Social Teaching has long affirmed that parents are the first and primary educators of their children.

Already in 1890 Pope Leo XIII emphasized the duty to “protect the young from being misled by a system of instruction which ignores the principles of Christian morality”. (Sapientiae Christianae, 14-16)

The Second Vatican Council taught that parents “are bound by the most serious obligation to educate their offspring and therefore must be recognized as the primary and principal educators”. (Gravissimum Educationis, 3)

Pope St. John Paul II then reaffirmed: “This [educational] duty is irreplaceable and inalienable, and therefore incapable of being entirely delegated to others or usurped by others”. (Familiaris Consortio, 36)

Therefore, the Church affirms parental rights to choose schools: “Public authorities…must see to it…that public subsidies are paid out in such a way that parents are truly free to choose according to their conscience the schools they want for their children”. (Gravissimum Educationis, 6)

Pope Pius XI stated: “Laws and methods of education which fail to respect this freedom go against natural law and are immoral”. (Divini Illius Magistri, 31)

And Pope Francis affirmed: “Parents themselves enjoy the right to choose freely the kind of education—accessible and of good quality—which they wish to give their children in accordance with their convictions”. (Amoris Laetitia, 84)

Catholic Social Teaching has long affirmed that parents are the first and primary educators of their children.

Educating the Whole Person: A Catholic Vision

The Church also recognizes that education is not merely about academic achievement but involves the formation of the whole person—intellectually, morally, and spiritually: “Education is not only classroom teaching and vocational training…but the complete formation of the person.” (Pope Benedict XVI, 61)

Education, therefore, needing to address broader social, economic, and cultural challenges, calls for a “new humanistic synthesis” to navigate global complexities. (Pope Benedict XVI, 21)

Promoting the common good and global solidarity require “Greater access to education…an essential precondition for effective international cooperation”. (Pope Benedict XVI, 61)

When structured justly, school choice can contribute to integral human development by expanding access to quality education for all, especially underserved communities.

Subsidiarity: Families Over Bureaucracy

The principle of subsidiarity, a cornerstone of CST, reinforces the family’s central role in education.

Decisions should be made at the most local level possible—starting with the family because, “[t]he family holds directly from the Creator the mission, and hence the right, to educate the offspring”. (Pope Pius XI, 32)

As Pope Francis said, “The State offers educational programmes in a subsidiary way, supporting the parents in their indeclinable role”. (Amoris Laetitia, 84)

However, subsidiarity must also be balanced with the common good, defined as “the good of ‘all of us’, made up of individuals, families and intermediate groups who together constitute society”. (Pope Benedict XVI, 7)

School choice policies must ensure that freedom for some does not lead to inequality for others, prioritizing access to quality education for all, especially the poor. “All men of every race, condition and age, since they enjoy the dignity of a human being, have an inalienable right to an education”. (Gravissimum Educationis, 1)

As Gravissimum Educationis further teaches: “special attention should be paid to those who are poor” in ensuring access to education and (9) “The public power, in view of the common good, has the duty to ensure that citizens receive a proper education…particularly with regard to the poor and those who would otherwise be deprived of it”. (6)

This implies support for vouchers, tax credits, or other structures that enable parents to exercise their educational rights without financial penalty, aligning with the Church’s preferential option for the poor.

School Choice for the Common Good: A Catholic Call

“School is the first society that integrates the family. Family and school should never be opposed!” (Pope Francis)

Unfortunately, many educational institutions, from elementary schools to universities, have succumbed to a “secularist ideology” and drive “a wedge between truth and faith”. (Pope Benedict XVI)

As Pope Francis warned, “the educational pact today has been broken and thus the educational alliance between society and the family is in crisis.” (Amoris Laetitia, 84) 

“Divergence from this vision…far from advancing freedom, inevitably leads to confusion, whether moral, intellectual or spiritual.” (Pope Benedict XVI)

Education Crisis: A Broken Family-School Pact

“Catholic schools…play a vital role in assisting parents in their duty to raise their children”. (Pope Francis, 279) They help form children in both faith and reason, complementing rather than replacing the work of parents. (Pope Francis, 84)

By fostering an “educational alliance between society and the family,” Catholic schools help repair the “broken educational pact” caused by ideological divisions. (Pope Francis, 84)

As Pope Benedict XVI taught, “reason and faith can come to each other’s assistance. Only together will they save man”. (Caritas in Veritate, 74)

Catholic Schools: Allies in Faith and Formation

Catholic schools and families are called not only to resist harmful ideologies, but also to engage secular culture constructively, promoting truth and charity.

Education, central to integral human development, must form the whole person in truth, virtue, and love.

School Choice: A Moral Imperative

School choice is deeply rooted in Catholic Social Teaching, reflecting:

• The inalienable right and duty of parents to direct their children’s education. (Gravissimum Educationis, 6)
• The principle of subsidiarity in respecting family autonomy. (Pope Benedict XVI, 60)
• The moral obligation to serve the common good, especially the poor. (Pope Benedict XVI, 7)
  

Just school choice policies allow all families—regardless of income—to access the education they need to fulfill their God-given mission as the first educators of their children.

Exercising School Choice in Real Life

In 2025, the Educational Choice for Children Act (ECCA) created a federal school voucher program by offering a $1,700 tax credit for donations to scholarship-granting organizations (SGOs). These scholarships can be used for K–12 private school tuition (secular or religious), homeschooling expenses, tutoring, educational therapies, transportation, and technology. Families with incomes up to 300% of their area’s median income are eligible.

This is a positive step for school choice and reflects the Catholic Social Teaching principle of subsidiarity, since decisions about a child’s education are supported at a level closer to the family. Because states must opt in, however, residents of states that decline participation are effectively excluded from these benefits.

Yet Catholic teaching reminds us that subsidiarity must always be balanced by the common good. As Gravissimum Educationis teaches, “special attention should be paid to those who are poor”. (9) If ECCA policies disproportionately benefit wealthier families or urban areas, the “broken educational pact” Pope Francis warned about will remain unrepaired.

School choice—like all genuine choice—is not a license to do as we please, but a call to embrace the sacred duty of forming the whole person in truth and virtue. “Indeed, the dignity of education lies in fostering the true perfection and happiness
of those to be educated”. (Pope Benedict XVI) Furthermore, if public or private schools close due to enrollment shifts, new schools must open to meet demand and prevent increased inequality.

A Catholic Call to Action

For Catholics, school choice is not merely a policy preference—it is a matter of justice, human dignity, and the common good. The Church has spoken clearly: parents are the first educators, the family is the primary school, and society—including government—exists to serve, not replace, this mission.

Our responsibility is twofold: to protect the right of every family to choose the education that forms their children in truth and love, and to ensure that such choice is accessible to all—especially the poor and marginalized. Anything less leaves the “educational pact” broken and our moral duty unmet.

In defending school choice, we defend not only educational freedom but the God-given dignity of the child, the vocation of the family, and the future of society itself.