Hurricane aid: Catholic schools getting portion of federal help

Published: 2006-01-20

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- There were times during the congressional hearings on hurricane school aid that Catholic school officials thought they would walk away empty-handed. But after months of debate and fine-tuning of the legislative proposals, Congress ended up giving Catholic schools damaged by hurricanes Katrina and Rita or inundated with evacuee students the green light to request a percentage of the federal help offered to public schools. The federal aid will be allocated through the Hurricane Education Recovery Act signed by President George W. Bush Dec. 30. It won Senate approval Dec. 21 in a 93-0 vote and House approval in a voice vote the next day as a part of an appropriations bill. Oblate Father Bill Davis, deputy education secretary of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, is pleased that Catholic schools will benefit from the new law, but is concerned that the aid, which was slow to be promised, might even be slower to get to the hands of schools that need it.

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