Parents choosing Catholic school values
In two states where school-choice vouchers are available, many parents are choosing Catholic schools. After my own Catholic school experience, I think I know why.
The school-choice fight
A school-choice battle has been under way in many states across the country.
Parents want vouchers so they can pay private-school tuition. Public-school officials want every penny kept in the public system.
Most blue states have defeated school-choice efforts. Two red states, Florida and Texas, did not.
Florida made every child eligible for a scholarship of roughly $6,500 to $8,000 — more than 525,000 students now use one.
Texas this year opened Education Freedom Accounts — about $10,000 a seat for private school — and has awarded more than 100,000 of them, with a waitlist still longer than the program.
Unlike much of the country, where Catholic schools have been shuttering, more parents in Florida and Texas are choosing a Catholic education so their kids master right and wrong and get an excellent education.
Nuns taught tough love
Unlike some public schools, in which teachers fear their students, at St. Germaine Catholic School we students feared the sisters.
The sisters ran their classrooms in a structured, orderly manner. They took guff from no kid.
The floors were so clean you could eat off them.
The blackboards had a brighter sheen than a Mercedes fender.
And our desks, subject to frequent, unannounced inspections, were expected to be organized at all times.
As for our attire, we weren’t permitted to wear the loose, sloppy clothing kids wear today. We wore trousers and blazers and a white shirt and a tie.
There was a clear sense of right and wrong in the classroom. There was no daydreaming, no talking, no joking and no doodling.
It was expected that each student would put forth his best effort. Anything short of excellence was grounds for severe punishment — anything from a call home to mom to a date with Sister Mary Brass Knuckles’ dreaded brass ruler.
As some of the funnier nuns used to say, they didn’t want us picking up any “bad habits!”
Parish priest demanded excellence
Our parish priest, Father Tom Kram, arrived at our parish in 1967, one year before I began first grade.
He was 43 years old, stood 6 feet 1 inch and sauntered about the church and school grounds like a restless general.
When he wasn’t directing contracting crews on how he wanted the boiler repaired or the parking lot patched, he was monitoring the church grounds.
One summer day, I rode my bike up to the baseball field on the hill high above the church. Some kid was tearing around the field on a dirt bike.
Suddenly, a green Crown Victoria came roaring up the narrow dirt road, causing the motorcyclist to flee.
“Who was that on the motorcycle?” said Father Kram, after rolling down his window.
“I don’t know, Father.”
“You see him tearing up our field again, you tell him his next ride is going to be in the back seat of a cop car.”
Father Kram made report-card day unpleasant for those of us who looked out the window daydreaming more than we tended to our studies.
He handed out every report card in front of the class. If you got any grade lower than a B, he demanded answers.
He did this for a simple reason: He and the sisters demanded excellence because it was their job to prepare us for the adult world.
Why parents still choose Catholic schools
Everyone at St. Germaine — the sisters, priests and lay teachers — understood that a daily civil war takes place in every human heart and every society.
They did their best to teach us right from wrong through their actions and words.
As the world gets more confusing every day — as we lose our grasp of right and wrong and debate whether such concepts even exist — I fully understand why so many parents want to send their kids to Catholic schools.
If your state has not yet won the school-choice fight, keep at it. Father Kram and the good sisters of St. Germaine are rooting for you.
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Copyright 2026 Tom Purcell, distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate.
See Tom Purcell’s syndicated column, humor books and funny videos featuring his dog, Thurber, at TomPurcell.com. Email him at Tom@TomPurcell.com.
Copyright 2026 Tom Purcell, All Rights Reserved. Credit: Cagle.com
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