Fresh proof school choice can save Catholic schools — and help more generations of kids thrive

New York Post

2 days ago

Over the past decade, no state in the country has been a bigger poster child for the decline of America's Catholic schools than New York. And no state has offered more hope about the reversibility of that tragic trend line than Florida.
From 2015 to 2025, enrollment in the nation's Catholic schools fell another 13%, per a report to be released Wednesday by Florida nonprofit Step Up For Students.
New York led the way, with a 31% drop.
In Florida, though, enrollment grew — by 12%. In fact, Florida is the only US state in the top 10 of Catholic-school enrollment to see any growth in that span.
The big reason: school choice.
Florida has long had the most robust private-school choice programs in America. In 2023, it made every student eligible for choice scholarships, each worth roughly $8,000.
This year, 500,000 students in Florida are using scholarships, including 89% of the students in its Catholic schools.
New York families still have no private-school choice. Which is why, as The Post recently described it, Catholic schools are falling like dominoes.
This isn't just tragic for Catholics. This is tragic for New York.
For generations, Catholic schools have delivered top-notch education at low cost to masses of low-income families, many of them not Catholic.
The 'Catholic school effect' is well documented: Catholic schools lifted millions of working-class families into America's middle class.
They strengthened fragile communities. They saved taxpayers billions.
Today, if America's Catholic schools collectively counted as a state, they'd rank first in reading and math, per the most recent results on the National Assessment of Educational Progress.
Despite that success, thousands of Catholic schools have closed, not because families no longer want them, but because families can no longer afford them.
For those of us who believe low-income families deserve access to more high-quality learning options, this is heartbreaking.
But it's not inevitable. One potential solution is the Educational Choice for Children Act, a congressional proposal for a national school-choice program.
ECCA would essentially bring the Florida choice model to every state. Under the plan, nonprofit scholarship groups would oversee funds raised through tax-credited contributions from individuals.
Even if a state didn't have a choice program, families could apply for a federally supported scholarship.
Florida shows the upside of expanding choice. In the 1990s, its education system was a joke.
It ranked near the bottom on the NAEP tests; barely half its students graduated.
Today, Florida's graduation rate is approaching 90%, it ranks No. 7 in Advanced Placement performance, and its demographically adjusted NAEP performance is among the nation's best.
This progress comes even though Florida's per-pupil spending is among the lowest in the country.
Federal data that allows for state-to-state comparisons show that New York spent $29,873 per pupil in 2022, the most in America. Florida spent $11,076. (New York's per-pupil spending has since climbed to more than $36,000 a year.)
Private-school choice in Florida has been especially good for low-income students.
A 2019 Urban Institute study found low-income students using choice scholarships were up to 43% more likely than their public-school peers to attend four-year colleges, and up to 20% more likely to earn bachelor's degrees.
Another research team found that as private-school choice in Florida expanded, high-poverty public schools most impacted by the competition saw higher test scores, lower absenteeism and fewer suspensions.
Florida's Catholic schools have been in the thick of this change. They've become increasingly diverse, in terms of students served, and increasingly diversified, in terms of programs offered — all while holding true to the core values that have made them so vital for so long.
All education sectors in Florida know families now have the power to choose them, or not, and all have responded accordingly.
New York could use more of that choice and competition — and the expanded options and opportunities that brings to low-income families.
The result would be not only a comeback for Catholic schools, but systemic improvements in education that are long overdue.
Danyela Souza Egorov is the founder of Families for NY. Lauren May is senior director of advocacy at Step Up For Students, which administers Florida's school-choice scholarship programs, and a former Catholic-school teacher and principal.