Catholic schools have long been a vital part of America’s K-12 school choice landscape, and COVID-19 has created a resurgence of parent interest. Religiously-affiliated schools of all kinds are also expected to continue to flourish following the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue. 

We invite you to join us for a discussion on Pioneer Institute’s new book, A Vision of Hope: Catholic Schooling in Massachusetts. At a time when Catholic secondary schools are closing all across the country, A Vision of Hope reviews the successes of the Massachusetts model and offers recommendations to help Catholic schools increase student enrollment. Parents of all faiths and beliefs are drawn to the unrelenting focus on achievement, classic liberal arts education, discipline, and values that are part of a Catholic education.

This webinar features presentations and commentary from papal biographer George Weigel; Kendra Espinoza, Lead Plaintiff of Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue; co-editor of A Vision of Hope, Cara Candal; Patrick Wolf, Distinguished Professor of Education Policy at the University of Arkansas; and and IHE Director of the Program on the Constitution and Catholic Social Doctrine, Emmett McGroarty, as moderator.

George Weigel is Distinguished Senior Fellow and William E. Simon Chair in Catholic Studies at Washington’s Ethics and Public Policy Center. A Catholic theologian and one of America’s leading public intellectuals, he is the author of the international bestselling two-volume biography of Pope St. John Paul II, Witness to Hope and The End and the Beginning. Weigel is the author or editor of more than 20 other books, including Lessons in Hope: My Unexpected Life with St. John Paul II. His essays, op-ed columns, and reviews appear regularly in major U.S. newspapers. A frequent guest on television and radio, he is also Senior Vatican Analyst for NBC News. His weekly column, “The Catholic Difference,” is syndicated to 85 newspapers and magazines in seven countries. Weigel is the recipient of 19 honorary doctorates in divinity, philosophy, law, and social science.

Kendra Espinoza is the lead plaintiff in the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case, Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue. She is a working, single mother of daughters Naomi and Sarah, who attend Stillwater Christian School. They were recipients of Montana’s education tax credit program until the Montana Department of Revenue, citing the state’s Blaine Amendment, issued a rule excluding Stillwater Christian from the program on religious grounds.

Cara Stillings Candal, Ed.D., has spent the last 10 years working in education policy as a Senior Fellow with both Pioneer Institute and the Center for Education Reform. She was also a founding team member of the National Academy of Advanced Teacher Education (NAATE) and a research assistant professor at Boston University in the Department of Educational Leadership and Development. Candal has authored/edited more than 25 papers and three books on education policy. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from Indiana University, a Master of Arts in Social Science from the University of Chicago, and a Doctor of Education from Boston University. Candal is the author most recently of Pioneer Institute’s book, The Fight for the Best Charter Public Schools in the Nation.

Patrick Wolf, Ph.D., is the Distinguished Professor of Education Policy and 21st Century Endowed Chair in School Choice in the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas College of Education and Health Professions. He has led or assisted with most of the key evaluations of private school voucher programs over the past 15 years, including recent studies of programs in Washington, D.C., and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as well as the statewide program in Louisiana. A 1987 graduate of the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, Dr. Wolf received his Ph.D. in Political Science from Harvard University in 1995.

Emmett McGroarty studies public policies that promote the principle of subsidiarity and that undermine the constitutional structure. He is the co-author of Deconstructing the Administrative State: The Fight for Liberty. He is also co-author ofControlling Education from the Top: Why Common Core Is Bad for America (Pioneer Institute 87, May 2012) and Cogs in the Machine: Big Data, Common Core, and National Testing (Pioneer Institute 114, May 2014). Mr. McGroarty is cofounder of truthinamericaneducation.com, a nationwide network of individuals and organizations that sheds light on the Common Core system and the collection of private data on children and their families. His published works have appeared in, among others, Breitbart.com, Christian Post, Crisis, Daily Caller, The Federalist, FoxNews.com, New York Post, Public Discourse, The Hill, Townhall, USA Today, and The Washington Times.  He has testified before state and federal committees and commissions. Mr. McGroarty received an A.B. from Georgetown University and a J.D. from Fordham School of Law.