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Cardinal Adam Maida said choice, opportunity and a better city are at stake in voucher vote in November. Arguments in the debate In November, voters will decide the fate of a proposed constitutional amendment to allow parents in some struggling school districts to receive up to $3,100 in public money to send their children to private schools.     Backers say:    * Vouchers give parents additional options for their children's education    * Low-income families whose children are in failing school districts and who can't afford private schools would have an alternative.    * The state has a responsibility to provide the best school environment for students, public or private.    * Proposal also includes teacher testing requirements and school funding guarantees.     Critics say:    * Spending public money at private schools violates church-state separation guarantees.    * Vouchers will drain money from the public school system.    * Constitutional change opens the floodgates for future Legislatures to pass tuition tax credits and a broader voucher plan.    * Tax dollars should not be used to support schools that can refuse to accept students for any reason.     Battle plan    The Michigan Catholic Conference, the Archdiocese of Detroit and the other six Catholic dioceses in the state are planning a campaign to motivate their members to vote "yes" on the school voucher proposal Nov. 7. Strategies include:    * Messages and essays in church bulletins, parish newspapers and other publications.    * Voucher-related themes in homilies and public announcements during church services this fall.    * Three letters sent to parishioners' homes by bishops focusing on the church's rationale for supporting school vouchers.    * Notices sent home with Catholic school students reminding parents to vote.    * Neighborhood meetings at parishioners' homes.    * Get-out-the-vote phone calls and visits by Catholic volunteers in the final week before the election.

By Mark Hornbeck / Detroit News Lansing Bureau

    LANSING -- The Michigan Catholic Church is opening its bank book and flexing its political muscle in an all-out effort aimed at swaying parishioners and others to approve in November the use of tax money to pay for private school tuitions.
   Fresh off a ballot victory against assisted suicide in 1998, the church this election year has put its weight behind the constitutional amendment to allow a system of vouchers where students could take state dollars dedicated to their education to any kind of school.
   The church already has funneled $765,000 into the campaign, including $450,000 from the Archdiocese of Detroit, state records show. A push from the pulpit is expected this fall as Catholic leaders attempt to drive their flock to the polls in November. There are 2.23 million Catholics in Michigan, including 800,000 to 900,000 potential voters.
   "There's no doubt in my mind. I believe vouchers designated for the poor will change Detroit quicker than all the financial arrangements of businesses and others," Cardinal Adam Maida said. "If one-third of young people in this city were to have the same opportunity to choose private education as the wealthy do, the public school system would change for the better. That's what's at stake here: choice, opportunity and a better city."
   The church has an obvious financial stake in the debate. If vouchers are approved, enrollments at Catholic schools could balloon and parents with children already in some Catholic schools would get state subsidies. But church leaders say it's about more than money.
   The voucher campaign also provides further evidence of the Catholic church's reawakening as a major political force in the state.
   "The church will make every attempt to use the means at its disposal to reach the membership on this issue," said Sister Monica Kosteilney, chief executive of the Michigan Catholic Conference, a key member of the steering committee of Kids First! Yes!, the pro-voucher group.
   The strategy, similar to one employed against assisted suicide, will include voucher-related messages in church bulletins, sermons addressing the issue, and letters from the bishops sent to parishioners' homes.
   The voucher plan would give parents up to $3,100 in public money toward private or parochial school tuition in public school districts that graduate less than two-thirds of students, that would include about 30 of the more than 500 school districts in the state. Other districts could adopt vouchers with a vote of local residents or the school board.
   The church says its support of vouchers is rooted in concerns about social justice. Rich parents can send their children anywhere to school while poor parents are often trapped in failing school districts with no options, the rationale goes.
   "For us, this is about parental rights, civil rights and justice," said Ned McGrath, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Detroit.
   Voucher opponents say the church's involvement is a helpful reminder to voters that this proposal is about spending public money on religious education.
   "The whole point of having a religious school is to further the organization," said Michael Emlaw, associate executive director of the Michigan Association of School Administrators, which has contributed $100,000 to the opposition group. "To support vouchers, we are supporting the religious organization. That raises issues we need to think about."

   Church a tough opponent
   When the church is moved by philosophical beliefs, it can be a tough opponent. Just ask Bob Moreillon, who helped lead the unsuccessful Michigan drive to legalize physician-assisted suicide two years ago. He said that with the Catholic church involved in the voucher fight expect a "juggernaut." He also has said that going up against the church in a political fight is like "being chased by a herd of elephants."
   The Catholic church spent $2.8 million on the assisted suicide battle, nearly half of the total amount poured into that campaign. The anti-Proposal B effort included a highly successful TV ad campaign. The ballot initiative lost by a 2-to-1 margin despite polls that had predicted a close vote. The battle to defeat the proposal was the biggest public push by the church since the fights over abortion and aid to parochial schools in the early 1970s.
   "It was shown by our experience that you can buy elections if you put enough ads on TV and you slant the ads your way," Moreillon said.
   He said the anti-voucher side has a built-in constituency in public school parents.
   "But they should not sell the voucher people short," he said. "They should put everything they have into it if they want to defeat the issue."
   Catholic leaders acknowledge that this campaign will be tougher than the foray against assisted suicide. First, conventional wisdom holds that it's easier to rally forces against a ballot proposal than in favor of one.
   The entire public education community will oppose vouchers, including the well-financed Michigan Education Association. The assisted suicide advocates had no such financial backing.
   "We'll have tremendously well-funded, well-organized opposition that is entrenched in a historic battle," said Sister Monica of the Michigan Catholic Conference.
   Also, Catholics themselves are more likely to be divided on the voucher issue. About three-quarters of Catholic children attend public schools and many live in strong suburban public school districts so their parents aren't as motivated to seek alternatives like vouchers.
   Some are concerned that public money will mean more state regulation and control of curriculum.
   "The loss of independence is an issue for some. I've heard that concern and it will have to be dealt with," said the Rev. Donald Hanchon, of Holy Redeemer Catholic Church in Southwest Detroit, who supports the voucher plan.

   Issue is not clear-cut
   Catholic officials also point out that the voucher proposal does not present a clear-cut moral issue for parishioners.
   "On assisted suicide, to vote in favor of the ballot proposal meant a rejection of the teachings of the church," said McGrath of the Detroit Archdiocese. "That's not the case with vouchers. It's not a catechism issue."
   Metro area Catholics interviewed by The Detroit News, however, said they strongly support the voucher plan and they think it's appropriate for the church to be involved.
   "It's a matter of justice and equity," said Jessie Goodwin of Detroit, a retired health care executive and parishioner of Presentation Our Lady of Victory in Detroit. "In my case, I worked to support three kids through Catholic schools without one penny of public funding. Meanwhile, I paid my share of taxes to support public education."
   Art McPharlin, a former Romulus school administrator who attends St. Anselm in Dearborn, added: "This is an issue the Catholic church should take a stand on. Some public schools are failing our children and parents should have other choices."
   Bob and Mary Stock of Walled Lake sent eight children, now grown, to Catholic school.
   "We certainly would have appreciated a little help back then," said Mary Stock, a member of St. William Roman Catholic Church.
   She said she understands the criticism of using tax money for private education.
   "But on the other hand I don't feel that I should be paying for public schools that can't mention God," she said. "And I'm not just talking about the Christian God. If you want to say a silent prayer to Allah, pray to Allah."
   Th"Of course vouchers are important to the Catholic church, because they will be of tremendous financial benefit to parochial schools right out of the chute," said Georgene Campbell, chair of All Kids First!, the voucher opposition group.
   It's not known how many of the state's current 92,000 Catholic school students would get vouchers or how many public school children would transfer to Catholic schools should the proposal win voter approval. But if, say, 10,000 vouchers go to Catholic students that would mean as much as $31 million for Catholic students, parents and parish schools.
   "There is some self-interest here. But it's not just about money," said Paul Long, spokesman for the Catholic Conference. "The church is interested because the parents should have the right to choose the best educational setting and the government has the moral obligation to provide that opportunity, even if it means subsidizing families."
   The plan to translate that church leadership support into mobilization of Catholic voters is similar to the approach used in the assisted suicide campaign. The Catholic Conference is drafting model sermons to be delivered by parish priests in October. Catholic bishops will mail three separate letters to the homes of parishioners explaining why the church backs vouchers. Parishes will be encouraged to put messages and essays in Sunday bulletins and other church publications and students in the fall will bring notes home to parents.
   "We'll reach our people mostly through articles in the parish paper, which are pretty well read. And I'll incorporate the voucher issue into homilies that talk about justice and reaching out to the poor," said the Rev. Tom Sutherland of St. Therese of Lisieux of Shelby Township.
   And, of course, Catholics will be contacted by Kids First! Yes!, the pro-voucher group, to contribute to the campaign. The dioceses in Lansing, Gaylord, Grand Rapids and Saginaw already have donated about $300,000 and likely will kick in more. The Detroit Archdiocese has contributed $450,000 from unrestricted funds, a pot fed by interest income, investments, insurance rebates and other sources of income, officials said.
   "We don't pass the collection plate for ballot issues," said McGrath at the Archdiocese.
   Catholic leaders say the church probably won't have to ante up the $2.8 million it spent on the assisted suicide campaign because other deep-pocketed interests are behind vouchers, including the Amway Corp.-connected DeVos family, which already has contributed over $2 million.
   An attorney general's ruling in February confirmed the rights of religious organizations to give to ballot proposal campaigns. Detroit Baptist and Jewish organizations are on the Kids First! Yes! coalition list and they're expected to turn out their congregations to vote. But campaign records show these groups have not given money.
   The involvement of the Catholic church and its legion of voters is critical to the voucher movement, said Dick DeVos, Amway executive and founder of Kids First! Yes!
   "The Catholic community in Michigan is a large bloc of voters and it does demonstrate the breadth of what we're doing," DeVos said. "The Catholic church is a tremendously diverse cross-section of the state.
   "The church's involvement in our campaign shouldn't be surprising, because school choice is the social justice and civil rights issue of our time."
   

Detroit News Staff Writer George Bullard contributed to this report.

 

 

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