• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
        • Sports News
        • Official Clergy Assignments
        • Schools News
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Question Corner
          • George Weigel
          • Elizabeth Scalia
          • Michael R. Heinlein
          • Effie Caldarola
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Mark Viviano
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie & Television Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
        • Recipes
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • CR Media platforms
        • Electronic Edition
  • Advertising
  • Shop
        • Purchase Photos
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • Magazine Subscriptions
        • Archdiocesan Directory
  • CR Radio
        • CR Radio
        • Protagonistas de Fe
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe

‘Public’ does not equal ‘state’ or ‘government’

June 18, 2025
By George Weigel
Syndicated Columnist
Filed Under: Commentary, Supreme Court, The Catholic Difference

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

In its recent non-decision, St. Isidore of Seville Virtual Catholic School v. Drummond, the U.S. Supreme Court let stand an obtuse Oklahoma Supreme Court ruling that excluded St. Isidore’s from the state charter school program. Notre Dame Law Professor Richard Garnett, in a fine article at Law & Liberty, explains why the Oklahoma Supremes got it wrong:

“The Supreme Court of Oklahoma had ruled that excluding St. Isidore did not violate the firm and established constitutional rule against anti-religious discrimination and that, in fact, this exclusion was constitutionally required. This ruling was incorrect and inconsistent with the relevant precedents of the [U.S.] Supreme Court. In a recent series of cases, the [SCOTUS] justices have repeatedly reminded governments that they may not discriminate against otherwise eligible beneficiaries or contracting parties merely because they are ‘religious.’ And it has been clear for decades that the First Amendment’s prohibition on religious ‘establishments’ does not preclude cooperation between secular governments, on the one hand, and religious institutions, on the other. Such cooperation, the Court has recognized, is deeply rooted in our history, is ubiquitous in public policy today, and serves well the common good of our communities.”

SCOTUS’s 4-4 decision not to decide in St. Isidore does not sound the death knell of the school choice movement, which is arguably the most consequential civil rights movement in 21st-century America. As Professor Garnett notes, “the do-nothing denouement in this particular round of litigation does not preclude other courts, in other cases, from vindicating the discrimination rule and permitting religious schools to participate in charter-school programs.” And that is a good thing, because the present, sad — one might even say, corrupt — condition of many state-run American elementary and secondary schools is as big a threat to republican self-government as the wrecking-crew shenanigans of DOGE or the massive cover-up of presidential incapacity by the Biden Administration “Politburo” (detailed in the book Original Sin). A people who cannot read or compute — a people ignorant of, or misled about, their own history — cannot sustain a self-governing republic. In those circumstances, “We, the People” fracture into a gaggle of mobs, hurling epithets at each other out of the depths of our ignorance.

(Sound familiar?)

The virtual monopoly on tax dollars enjoyed by state-run schools in the United States is supported by a corruption of language. Consider the ubiquitous term “public schools.” The far more accurate designator would be “state schools.” Inner-city Catholic schools, which serve many non-Catholic students and their families, are doing a public service that government-run, union-controlled state schools often fail to provide. For judging by the relevant educational attainment statistics, students in those urban Catholic schools routinely outperform their peers in state schools, most of which are far more lavishly funded.      

Something is wrong here. And the failure to fix it, for the benefit of both students and society, has been caused in no small part by the false claim of the teachers’ unions and the state educational bureaucracies that they own the concept of a “public” school. If “public” means “serving the common good,” that claim is ludicrous. Charter schools and other non-governmental educators (like the national network of Cristo Rey Schools or Mother Mary Lange Catholic School in my native Baltimore) are not “private” schools. They are independent schools serving the public and the common good. They are living refutations of the claim that only state-run schools are “public schools.”

Or as Professor Garnett puts it, pithily, “There is nothing about public education, properly conceived, that limits it to the world of [state] employees in government-owned buildings.”

An educated citizenry is essential to a well-functioning democratic republic. That is why taxing “We, the People” to support education is a morally justifiable use of state power. Nothing in our constitutional order, however, demands that those tax dollars support only government-owned schools operated by government-employed teachers and staff. Moreover, the virtual monopoly on the public purse that government-run schools enjoy, combined with the self-serving recalcitrance of teachers’ unions that long ago abandoned the idea of teaching as a vocation, have together rendered many of those schools dysfunctional, as their wretched performance during Plague Time in 2020-2021 demonstrated. Reformers of state-run education — and there are some — would also benefit from a break-up of the state-school monopoly on tax dollars, competition being one of the mothers of reform. 

The U.S. Supremes kicked the can down the road in St. Isidore. But the cause of school choice continues. And it will ultimately prevail, because it’s the will of “We, the People.”      

Read More Commentary

Our faith is not afraid of questions

Artificial Intelligence, wholeism and prayer

Question Corner: Does reception of the Eucharist replace confession?

A butterfly lands on a flowering bush with purple blossoms

A Miracle for a Baby in Rhode Island (and for all of us)

Kids need lots of people who love them

Painting of Martha and Mary during their visit with Jesus

A parenting lesson in the Mary and Martha story

Copyright © 2025 Catholic Review Media

Print Print

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

Primary Sidebar

George Weigel

View all posts from this author

| Recent Commentary |

Our faith is not afraid of questions

Artificial Intelligence, wholeism and prayer

Question Corner: Does reception of the Eucharist replace confession?

A butterfly lands on a flowering bush with purple blossoms

A Miracle for a Baby in Rhode Island (and for all of us)

Kids need lots of people who love them

| Recent Local News |

Archdiocese of Baltimore offers resources for parishes to assist migrants

Third annual gun buyback scheduled for Aug. 9

Driver arrested after crashing into entrance of Esperanza Center

Construction underway on new north addition to St. Joseph’s Nursing Home 

Prince of Peace merges with St. Francis de Sales in Harford County

| Catholic Review Radio |

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Real Life. Real Faith. 

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • Massacre ‘of faithful in the house of God’ in Congolese Catholic church leaves 43 dead
  • Pope welcomes young people to Rome for jubilee, thanks media for promoting truth
  • Cardinal Tomasi: Religious communities can play key roles in nuclear disarmament
  • Warsaw archbishop ‘devastated, crushed’ by priest’s arrest in brutal murder of homeless man
  • Jubilee of Youth chance to celebrate hope, fraternity in world at war, panel says
  • New York archdiocese sees hundreds of responses to ‘Called By Name’ program
  • Can’t afford a Catholic college? Think again. Many offer full tuition options
  • Detroit archbishop fires theologians Ralph Martin, Eduardo Echeverría from seminary
  • LA archbishop, joined by business leaders, starts fund to help families affected by ICE raids

Search

Membership

Catholic Media Assocation

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2025 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

en Englishes Spanish
en en