New York archbishop urges Congress to pass school choice bill, cites ‘dismal’ reading, math proficiency test results
Caroline MolloyPoor grade-level proficiency in math and reading should compel Congress to pass a school choice bill expanding education options for families, Archbishop of New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan said in a Jan. 31 New York Post op-ed.
“For President Trump and the new Congress, the moment is now to pass meaningful school choice legislation to reach families in all 50 states,” Cardinal Dolan wrote. “Legislation in Congress, the Educational Choice for Children Act (ECCA), is the ideal way to improve and expand educational opportunity to families who lack the financial capacity for a private or religious education — and build a more equal and just society.”
Last week, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), a project of the Department of Education’s (DOE) National Center for Education Statistics, released the 2024 reading and math data for fourth- and eighth-grade students. The assessment found that 76% of fourth-grade students and 61% of eighth graders reached basic math proficiency, which the NAEP describes as “partial mastery of prerequisite knowledge and skills that are fundamental for performance at the NAEP Proficient level.” Fourth grade basic reading proficiency came in at 60%. Two in three eighth graders were proficient.
The DOE stated in a Jan. 29 press release that the assessment results were “heartbreaking,” as they indicate that academic proficiencies have still not improved since the 2020 pandemic and have actually continued to decline since then.
“Those students who were the most behind and needed the most support have fallen even further behind,” the DOE release said. “Despite the billions of dollars that the federal government invests in K-12 education annually, and the approximately $190 billion in federal pandemic funds, our education system continues to fail students across the nation.”
Cardinal Dolan wrote in the op-ed that the test results “[prove] just how important it is to expand education freedom to all 50 states.”
School choice would financially benefit families who want to send their children to a Catholic school, for example, but cannot afford to do so, according to Cardinal Dolan.
The ECCA would add a federal income-tax credit that would incentivize private financial donations toward nonprofit scholarship organizations, Cardinal Dolan noted. Additionally, an expansive ECCA would enable families to choose schools that are not affected by new federal mandates.
“For many parents, if not most,” he wrote, “their neighborhood government school meets their children’s needs. May they flourish! Many other parents, however, find government schools inadequate to prepare their children academically, unsafe and/or undermine their family’s values and religious freedom.”
A 2023 study also found that school choice improves academic performance in public schools, Cardinal Dolan noted.
He urged legislators in both the Democratic and Republican parties to support ECCA.
