Many Catholic schools will open for in-person classes this fall, even as a wide sweep of public schools will begin the semester online.
These decisions, however, have not come without controversy. Fears of schools becoming super-spreader locales led California Gov. Gavin Newsom in July to announce the closure of all schools public and private, a move which drew backlash and lawsuits from many parents. California, so far, is the only state with a sweeping closure order.
Other states, however, have experienced drama over school openings on a local level. In Montgomery County, Maryland, this weekend, Health Officer Travis Gayles announced that all private schools would be forced online for the beginning of the year. The decision, which came out late Friday, was met with outcry from parents and Gov. Larry Hogan, who said that the terms of reopening are a “decision for schools and parents, not for politicians.”
Hogan overruled the order on Monday in an executive order stating that “private and parochial schools deserve the same opportunity and flexibility to make reopening decisions based on public health guidelines.”
In Texas in mid-July, Attorney General Ken Paxton made a similar statement, promising that parochial schools will not be forced to close because local governments are “prohibited from closing religious institutions or dictating mitigation strategies to those institutions” by the First Amendment.
But in most states, many Catholic and private schools are planning to reopen without incident. The Diocese of Portland in Maine announced Monday that schools will return to in-person but socially distanced classes in the fall. Parents who are uncomfortable with that arrangement will be able to continue keeping their children distance learning, the diocese announced in a letter. Catholic schools in West Virginia and Indiana on Monday introduced similar plans.
In states such as Florida, where the virus’s resurgence has been particularly pronounced, Catholic schools in the southern end of the state are holding off on returning immediately. But the hesitance of large parochial school systems hasn’t stopped smaller private schools from going ahead anyway, as well as Catholic schools in the Panhandle.
“It’s important for the students to get back to school, to be able to have continuance in their curriculum,” school leaders at the Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee announced Monday.
At the same time that many Catholic schools, which make up a massive share of private schools in the country, seek to open, many fear if they will close down for good because of financial constraints. Already in 23 states, more than 100 Catholic schools face permanent closure, according to the Catholic advocacy group the Alliance for Catholic Education.
Three of the top-ranking Catholic bishops in the United States last week wrote a joint op-ed begging Congress to consider the needs of Catholic schools when allotting stimulus money for education.
“Helping tuition-paying families keep their Catholic and other non-government schools open this fall must be part of the larger, urgently needed plan to sustain our nation. Doing so is right for parents, children, and their devoted teachers who depend on these schools,” wrote Cardinals Timothy Dolan, Sean O’Malley, and Archbishop Jose Gomez.
