Pinellas Times

A local Flordia parish captain believes that Catholics have a duty to vote in the November elections to protect religious-based school choice funding. 

For Sean Romer and many other school choice advocates, supporting a candidate that backs the option that allows taxpayer dollars to fund religious schools is a top priority. 

According to a Sept. 8 article in the Sunshine Sentinel, more than 130,000 Florida private K-12 students are at risk of losing their school choice scholarships and being forced to attend public school if Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden secures the White House.

Sunshine Sentinel reported that more than $1 billion in state scholarships were awarded to approximately 150,000 Florida private school students in the 2018-2019 school year through school choice programs. 

The programs distribute education funding to children from low-income families, those who have been victims of crime or disabled students. 

Romer, a parish captain and daily mass attendant at the St. Thomas More Catholic Church in Sanford, feels that Catholics have a duty to vote in the general election to keep Catholic school students' funding secure.

"If there is a Catholic candidate who is solid on essential issues, then a Catholic is certainly obliged to vote," Romer told Pinellas Times. He said that keeping Catholic schools and Catholic education in mind when voting is of paramount importance. "If there is no such candidate on the ballot, then voting is a prudential matter; in that case, one is obliged to vote for the candidate who does the best in terms of the moral law, and will govern from a standpoint most compatible (or the least injurious) to the Catholic position."

Romer favors a policy in which parents who send their children to parochial Catholic schools are exempt from paying taxes that would otherwise fund the public schools in their district. 

"Even better, I would favor a policy where any Catholic — whether they had children or not — could choose the school their tax money went to — if not the local public school, then the local Catholic school," Romer said. 

The parish captain said he wouldn't support a political candidate who opposes Catholic parents' freedom to choose and fund a faith-based education.

"It is a primary duty of parents to see to the education of their children, and it is the duty of the state and the schools to assist parents in this domain," said Romer. "I would not vote for a candidate who opposed this foundational concern."

Overall, Romer said this is an issue that Catholics should be paying attention to. He feels that a good education prepares young Catholics for their ultimate end of happiness with God in Heaven. 

"Preparing young people to get on in the world is secondary to that. An education that is indifferent to this truth — or that is hostile to it — should receive no support."