Background
Education is both a human right and a Catholic right. As a human right, education is a clear link to being able to escape poverty, build skills and critical thinking, and build up understanding and interpersonal skills. Within the Catholic Church, we acknowledge education as an opportunity to build community and seek the Truth, who is Christ.
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25% of people with no high school diploma experience poverty; 13% of high school graduates with no college degree experience poverty; only 4% of college graduates are considered under the poverty line.(1)
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The likelihood an individual will be employed within the civilian workforce increases with educational attainment by 5%.(2)
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Roughly 20% of homeowners have a higher graduate or professional degree.(3)
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Racial disparities are shrinking, but wide gaps remain in retention and graduation with post-high school diploma degrees.(4)
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Catholic school enrollment has grown nationally; enrollment increased 3.8% in 2021-2022, and again by 0.3% in 2022-2023.(5)
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Catholic schools provide $23.4 billion dollars in savings to tax payers.(6)
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High school graduation rate of Catholic schools is at 98.9%, and 85.2% of Catholic school students attend college.(7)
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1https://www.statista.com/statistics/233162/us-poverty-rate-by-education/
2https://educationdata.org/education-attainment-statistics
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Church Documents
Early Church Fathers
Education (section of article)