Faith-based education an option we can't deny: Column

• Like Sotomayor%27s school%2C many Catholic schools are closing.
• Why%3F It%27s not because demand for such schools has suddenly disappeared.
• While many agree on importance of education%2C too many voters draw a line on religious-based schools.

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor was asked recently by CNN's Anderson Cooper whether she'd have become who she is without the help of a faith-based school, Blessed Sacrament in the Bronx. Sotomayor said, "Doubtful." In an interview with The New York Times, she said the school was "a road of opportunity for kids with no other alternative."

Now it's gone. Like more than 1,300 other Catholic schools in the past 20 years, Blessed Sacrament fell victim to sweeping social and economic forces — and to education policies that blind themselves to the value of faith-based schools.

The U.S. lacks a surplus of high-quality schools, especially that serve the urban poor. Yet year after year, we have watched as thousands of faith-based schools have been forced to close. America is losing a valuable national asset — not because it has become obsolescent or because the demand for it has disappeared, but because of a needlessly narrow view of which families should have the choice in education that is so dear to the middle class.

Charter and magnet schools have diversified public schools. Parents in select states and areas can opt for schools that stress language immersion, math and science, the arts. But parents who cannot afford a faith-based education routinely are told the state will offer no support. Only 16 states and Washington, D.C., have scholarships that empower parents to choose a faith-based school, and most of those are small and targeted. This is a costly mistake.

First, we have strong evidence these schools can help. In 12 studies over the past 15 years that relied on the research method of random assignment, 11 showed that students using vouchers to attend private and faith-based schools had higher reading and

math scores and higher graduation rates and college attendance than students who remained in their public schools. The 12th study showed equal achievement.

Second, parents know what their children need far better than a school district official. Robbing parents of the right to select their children's school has consequences beyond education. Parents feel powerless to help their children and often reject responsibility.

Most people understand why children benefit from different learning options, but too many voters draw a line at religious-based schools. There is not a constitutional, civic, nor moral reason to do so. In Pierce v. Society of Sisters, the U.S. Supreme Court recognized in 1925 that religious schools can be used to satisfy compulsory education laws. Just 11 years ago, in Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, the court said not only that school vouchers can be used at faith-based schools, but also that their exclusion would amount to a form of religious discrimination.

We respect public schools as an important option. But parents who seek a faith-based education option should be supported. In states with small educational choice programs, we call for expanded eligibility.

We see glimmers of hope. In Indiana and Louisiana, lawmakers have given parents more choices. Those states' voucher programs have seen enrollment in faith-based schools grow rapidly in the past two years. In Florida this year, 60,000 low-income students entered private schools, most of them faith-based.

Somewhere out there, a future Sotomayor can live up to her potential. She may do it in a traditional public school, a charter school, or a faith-based school. Where that happens is less important than that it happens.

John Coons is professor of law, emeritus, University of California-Berkeley. Peter Hanley is executive director of the American Center for School Choice.

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