•September 6, 2017•

By Jim Nowlan
NP Guest Columnist

As I write this, the Illinois House has just passed a school funding bill that includes $75 million in first-ever state tax credits for scholarships for youngsters to attend nonpublic schools in our state.

The proposal is yet another declaration of lack of confidence in Illinois public schools.

I am a believer in public schools as the historic bedrock upon which our nation has been built. I also believe in competition as a tool for enhancing quality.

Yet public schools have been held suspect in various quarters since the mid-1800s.

Catholic schools became especially important to Irish Catholic immigrants because of intense discrimination against these newcomers from Yankees, who controlled the public schools.

By the 1960s, however, many of Catholic parish schools began to struggle because they were losing their low-cost teaching-religious sisters and brothers.      Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.