Safeguarding the future of Catholic Education

The Catholic Education Service writes:

Are you a Catholic who wants to send your child to a Catholic school? Do you support the right of Catholic parents/guardians to choose a Catholic education for their child or children? Do you want to safeguard the future of Catholic education in England? If the answer’s yes to any of these questions, we urgently need your help.

Last year the Government promised to lift the 50% cap on faith admissions for new religious schools. This policy had proved to be an effective ban on any new Catholic schools as our Bishops ruled that opening a Catholic school that turned away Catholics for being Catholic was against Canon Law. The 50% cap was a policy that specifically targeted Catholics as Catholic schools are popular with parents of all faiths and none. Last September the Government acknowledged the cap was unfair to the Catholic community and pledged to scrap it. The Conservatives even included a commitment to remove it in their manifesto.

Unfortunately, the Secretary of State for Education is thinking about U-turning on this and breaking the Government’s promise to Catholics. The Catholic community now needs to make its collective voice heard and tell the Secretary of State that this level of discrimination against Catholic schools, parents and children will not be tolerated. As such we are urging Catholics to write to the Secretary of State and their MP expressing their concern that this promise to our community could be broken.

These letters can be easily sent by following this link, http://catholicnews.org.uk/education-cap inserting your details and clicking ‘send’.”