Ray Domanico, a senior fellow and director of Education Policy at the Manhattan Institute, was the guest on a recent episode of the Minnesota Catholic Conference's (MCC) Bridge Builder podcast.

Domanico answered questions about school choice, anti-Catholic Blaine Amendments, and the recent Supreme Court ruling in the Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue case.

The Espinoza ruling is very important, Domanico told host and MCC Executive Director Jason Adkins.

The ruling provides that states are not required to support private schools with public dollars, but if they choose to support private schools, they cannot exclude private schools because they use a religious curriculum.

The ruling deals with a series of laws passed in many states during the 19th century commonly known as the Blaine Amendments. They were influenced by anti-immigrant sentiments and anti-Catholic bias.

(16:38) “This opens up a lot of new opportunities to expand parental choice in schools,” Domanico told Adkins. “It also creates an opportunity to perhaps find ways to save what is left of the Catholic education system." 

And there is great societal value in sustaining the Catholic education system. During the Civil Rights era, he noted the role Catholic Schools played in serving impoverished and minority inner city families who were seeking a better education for their children.

When it comes to providing a ladder out of poverty, Catholic and other religious schools have advantages over public education, Domanico said.

(4:30) “For the most part, they are mission-driven,” he told Adkins.

As a result, religious schools tend to see students as more than just test scores or their family’s income level and background.

“They’re seeing a child of God. They’re seeing the human value in each child,” Domanico said. For parents who may feel their public school has essentially given up on their child, a Catholic school and that mission-driven outlook can be a big benefit.

Yet, Domanico said that he has great respect for public educators, and that they are often stuck in no-win situations by administrators and politicians who expect them to fix every one of society’s ills without giving them the tools or professional freedom they need.

No education can be values-neutral, he told Adkins. Despite claims by those who oppose public dollars going to private schools that public schools are value-neutral, such an assertion simply isn’t true.

Again, public school educators can find themselves in impossible positions, caught between administrators and politicians who want to straddle every line or create immediate solutions to societal issues, and parents who want their children to have their own values.

That can also lead to mixed or destructive messages being conveyed to children about their abilities to achieve and better themselves through their accomplishments, Domanico told Adkins.