Catholic Schools Changing Lives

Written by: Eric Prister

“I’m not sure what I would’ve been doing—probably getting in trouble.”

But Michelle Eusebio, as she grew up in Washington Heights on the north side of New York City, wasn’t getting in trouble. She would spend her mornings, noons, and often evenings at her second home, Our Lady Queen of Martyrs School.

For Michelle, OLQM was a second home, a place she felt safe, and a beacon of discipline that kept her out of trouble and focused on her goal—college.

While Michelle was moving toward her goal, another deserving young man was on his way to America from Haiti. Frantz Placide, who moved to Miami, FL at the age of six, found opportunity in the form of former governor Jeb Bush’s Step Up for Students program.

The program offers tax credit scholarships throughout the state of Florida for low-income families who would like the opportunity to choose a school for their children but do not have the financial means to pay for private school or for transportation to an out-of-district public school. The notion was simple—it is unjust that everyone other than the poor of our country get to choose where their children go to school. Since Bush instituted SUFS, over 331,000 low-income students in Florida have benefitted from this empowerment, and Frantz was one of the first.

Rather than attend an “F” (or “failing”) high school, Frantz enrolled at Bishop Curley-Notre Dame High School, a decision that he says changed his life.

“I was the first person in my family to have the opportunity to go to college, and I was the first person in my family to go to college,” Frantz said.

Frantz has since graduated from Wagner College, one of his younger brothers is currently in college, and the third brother is well on his way. He has also former a relationship with Jeb Bush, and spoke with him at the 2012 Republican National Convention.

As a part of our Fighting for Our Children’s Future National Bus Tour, we have the opportunity to meet many people from various backgrounds. We can meet and hear the story of people like Michelle, who spoke at Our Lady Queen of Martyrs during our visit. Her son now attends the school, and he (like her) refuses to come home before after-school care ends at 6:00pm.

The nature of traveling around the country in a bus like the one we’ve been driving around, though, lends itself to encounters that aren’t prescribed, and aren’t expected. We can meet people like Frantz, who just happened to be our representative from Enterprise Rent-a-Car, who picked us up from our hotel.

These stories aren’t unique, they’re not earth shattering, but they are beautiful. These stories we hear, when we expect them and especially when we don’t, are the stories of people who have had their life (and the lives of their families) totally altered by the gift of Catholic schools. Catholic schools provide a home, they provide discipline, and they provide hope. Each time we hear one of these stories, it reminds us that they are not unique, and our hope is that they become less and less unique until every child can receive this type of life changing education.