The state department of education gave the school district 60 days to establish consultation with the archdiocese and to fix any errors in calculating student need.
Before 2019, the school district gave about 2 to 2.6% of Title I funds to private schools, a percentage which decreased to 0.5%. This was despite a Title I funding pool increase to $349 million over an average of $291 million before 2019.
The total amount shared with private schools fell from about $7.5 million to $1.7 million. Catholic schools reported receiving about $190,000, about 11% of the total for private schools.
The Department of Catholic Schools is the largest private school system in the Los Angeles area.
The Los Angeles Unified School District is the second-largest public school district in the U.S. However, the public school district has faced a downturn in enrollment and funding as a whole.
Archdiocesan officials had expressed surprise at the sudden change in Title I funding, saying that for decades the Church believed there was an effective partnership between private schools and the school district.
In December, Paul Escala, senior director and superintendent of schools for the archdiocese, told the California education news site EdSource that he is optimistic the new superintendent, Alberto Carvalho, would “reset the relationship with Catholic schools.” Escala said Carvalho’s time in Florida as superintendent of Miami-Dade County Public Schools included working with non-public schools and with immigrant students.
The Second Vatican Council’s 1965 declaration on Christian education, Gravissimum educationis, said that parents “must enjoy true liberty in their choice of schools.”
“Consequently, the public power, which has the obligation to protect and defend the rights of citizens, must see to it, in its concern for distributive justice, that public subsidies are paid out in such a way that parents are truly free to choose according to their conscience the schools they want for their children.”
Credit: Source link
