Their high achievement comes as they spend half money of Indiana’s public schools

by Sheri Conover Sharlow Libertarian Writers' Bureau http://www.writersbureau.org

While government schools scream about small cuts in their state funding, Catholic schools will celebrate great work they do with half per-student spending of their counterparts.

This is Catholic Schools Week, when schools nationwide will showcase what they do for millions of children.

Criticisms that Catholic schools skim top talent aren’t true. Many take all comers.

The difference? They don’t let excuses explain away poor achievement. This year’s Catholic Education Week theme – Faith in Every Student – perfectly sums up goals of these schools.

I point to my alma maters, McAuley High School and Assumption Elementary School in greater Cincinnati. Both draw heavily from blue-collar families. Both have long offered a high-quality education that rivals some of city’s best schools. Both rely on parents and alumni to fund new facilities.

Surprisingly, Catholic schools frequently are less annoying than public schools that nickel-and-dime people to death with sales of wrapping paper, candy and other things that no one wants. This comes after they tax us to death. (Why do they need more money? Half of our education dollars never make it to classroom, but get sucked up in education bureaucracy.)

St. Paul Elementary, where my daughter Meredith attends kindergarten, strictly limits fund-raising to very few events. Focus on those and school will get enough.

If you can’t afford tuition, even if you’re not Catholic, these schools usually find a way for your children attend. They offer scholarships. High schools frequently allow students to sweep floors or wash dishes to offset tuition and to get work done less expensively

By Mike Kole Libertarian Writers’ Bureau http://www.writersbureau.org

I always have to remember to take a deep breath when examining laws being proposed by our grand Legislature. I detest most of new legislation on table, but have to forgive our representatives in House and Senate for it. After all, writing laws is what a Legislature does, and if they don’t write enough laws, it can begin to look like they’ve been loafing.

Call me strange, but I rather prefer a Legislature that goofs off and under produces new laws. I’m convinced we have enough of them already, and agree with Mark Twain, who famously said that no man’s life, liberty, or property is safe while Legislature is in session.

Mainly, that is because no lawmaker wants to look like a slacker, especially so soon after an election. It’s bad form. As a result, we get some hideous proposals that I would chalk up as an effort to hide behind some broad good intention while looking meaningful, or at least busy.

House Bill 1508 is a textbook case as one such proposal.

Representative Vanessa Summers, an Indianapolis Democrat, has introduced legislation that would prohibit use of cell phones, making exceptions for hands-free devices and for emergency use. The proposed fine for violations of law would be up to $25.

The intent is to make our streets a little less hazardous. We have all groused at idiot guilty of driving while in conversation that cut us off or made us miss a light, and we have cursed driver and his cell phone. Summers’ proposal takes its cue from similar laws passed in New York and District of Columbia. As everyone knows, these cities now have safest streets in world.

This law is rife with problems, from practical application to higher concerns of individual liberty.

I know four friends, right off top of my head, who would gladly pay up to $25, as a cost of doing business. They think this highly of each and every one of their calls. $25 is no kind of deterrent for these people.