Educational freedom is nothing to fear

Jerry Zahorchak is deeply concerned about school choice. Fortunately, he and all other public education advocates have nothing to worry about.

Zahorchak, the former secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Education and former superintendent of Greater Johnstown School District, recently opined about school vouchers, citing his concerns about their effect on education and society.

His concerns are threefold: that school choice threatens religious liberty, pursues profit instead of academic outcomes, and destabilizes public education because of political maneuvering.

However, this worrisome trifecta lacks merit.

Religious liberty

First, the risks to religious freedom are, if any, minimal.

School choice programs don’t force parents to send their kids to religious schools.

If anything, vouchers empower them to find a school more aligned with their faith. With our escalating culture wars (complete with skirmishes over concerns about gender ideology and critical race theory), school choice provides respite to families and students seeking to escape curriculum seen as an affront to their values.

The First Amendment, according to Zahorchak, also codifies “a delicate balance … that neither promotes nor inhibits religion.” Yet this separation of church and state has remained intact despite public funds going toward post-secondary private schools.

Students receive public assistance to attend religiously affiliated colleges and universities. Pell Grants and federal student loans already flow to universities such as Saint Joseph’s University, the University of Scranton and Villanova University. Many of these funds go toward families and students with tremendous financial need.

Does Zahorchak want to deprive these students of their financial aid?

School choice embodies the very spirit of our nation’s founding. Rather than trap children in institutions struggling with violence and indoctrination, our Founding Fathers embraced freedom.

Moreover, our nation’s most vulnerable students, especially children of color, are stuck in the nation’s most underperforming schools. Exacerbating social inequalities, public education epitomizes social inequality, trapping lowincome students with zoning and school district lines.

Looking at the socioeconomic differences between the school districts that perform well and those that don’t, it’s not hard to see how educational freedom is the civil rights issue of our time.

Pursuit of profit

Zahorchak frets about “the profit potential of creating new school systems.” This concern is problematic for several reasons.

First, what is the harm of new school systems? Education thrives on innovation, and creating new schools also creates bigger, better opportunities for students. Also, we don’t need to reinvent the wheel: Pennsylvania private schools, many of which have educated countless students for more than 100 years, possess a proven record of academic success.

Meanwhile, enrollment numbers for public schools have steadily dropped. Yet district after district has refused to consolidate schools to match this demand.

Instead, public school districts continue hoarding billions of dollars while increasing their mill levies. Despite the myth of underfunding, public education has proven to be quite lucrative in Pennsylvania, which ranks seventh nationally in per-student funding.

Destabilizing public education

Political lobbying also concerns Zahorchak. He takes issue with the “millions of dollars” spent on “legislation for school choice.”

Yet he doesn’t seem the least bit concerned about the tens of millions in political spending and lobbying by teacher unions against school choice.

At the very least, public education advocates complaining about lobbying is akin to the pot calling the kettle black.

Moreover, many public education advocates fall victim to the fixed-pie fallacy. Their narrative suggests that any additional resources you provide to one student must subtract from another student’s resources. If you fund school choice, public schools lose money. Nothing could be further from the truth. State after state has successfully enacted school choice programs while increasing public education funding.

We can see this pattern even in the Keystone State. In the 2024-25 budget, Pennsylvania lawmakers made the largest investment in basic education funding ($1.11 billion) while adding $75 million to its tax-credit scholarship programs.

Put simply, school choice and public education are not mutually exclusive concepts.

I invite Zahorchak to tour my school, Bishop McCort Catholic Academy, and see how his worries are unwarranted. He will see firsthand that our school does not – as Zahorchak contends – undermine public education.

Instead, our school is an asset to the Johnstown community. And if he doesn’t tour McCort, he can also visit the hundreds of other private schools educating kids across the commonwealth.

In Zahorchak’s words, educational freedom prioritizes the common good over narrow interests and ensures that our educational system remains a foundation of unity, opportunity and democratic values.

School choice can provide that opportunity for so many kids. Providing children with more educational options will only expand their opportunities for success.

Thomas A. Smith is the chief administrative officer for Bishop McCort Catholic Academy.

tribdem@tribdem.com