Fresh proof school choice can save Catholic schools and help more generations of kids thrive

Over the past decade, no state in the country has been a bigger poster child for the decline of America’s Catholic schools than New York.And no state has offered more hope about the reversibility of that tragic trend line than Florida.From 2015 to 2025, enrollment in the nation’s Catholic schools fell another 13%, per a report to be released Wednesday by Florida nonprofit Step Up For Students.

New York led the way, with a 31% drop. In Florida, though, enrollment grew — by 12%.In fact, Florida is the only US state in the top 10 of Catholic-school enrollment to see any growth in that span.The big reason: school choice.Florida has long had the most robust private-school choice programs in America.

In 2023, it made every student eligible for choice scholarships, each worth roughly $8,000.This year, 500,000 students in Florida are using scholarships, including 89% of the students in its Catholic schools.New York families still have no private-school choice.Which is why, as The Post recently described it, Catholic schools are falling like dominoes.This isn’t just tragic for Catholics.

This is tragic for New York.For generations, Catholic schools have delivered top-notch education at low cost to masses of low-income families, many of them not Catholic.The “Catholic school effect” is well documented: Catholic schools lifted millions of working-class families into America’s middle class.They strengthened fragile communities.They saved taxpayers billions.Today, if America’s Catholic schools collectively counted as a state, they’d rank first in reading and math, per the most recent results on the National Assessment of Educational Progress.Despite that success, thousands of Catholic schools have closed, not because families no longer want them, but because families can no longer afford them.

For those of us who believe low-income families deserve access to more high-quality learning options, this is heartbreaking.But it’s not inevitable.One potential ...