In most areas of life, when something isn’t working, we look for a better option. In K–12 education, though, children are assigned to public schools based on where they live—and if that school isn’t a good fit, the child is generally seen as the problem. School choice is changing that by expanding access to alternative learning environments. But educational freedom changes lives only if parents and teachers know what options exist, which is why Cato’s Friday Feature highlights the schools, policies, and organizations bringing those choices within reach.

The rapid expansion of school choice policies, such as vouchers, education savings accounts, and tax credit programs, has given families across the income spectrum increased access to learning options. But it has also highlighted an important fact: tuition funding is only one piece of the puzzle. Families will only use school choice scholarships if they have a good place to use them. 

That reality is central to the mission of CISE (Catholic Inner-city Schools Education) in Cincinnati, Ohio. The organization was launched in 1982 by three city leaders of different faiths—Catholic, Jewish, and Protestant—who believed a Catholic education was the best way out of poverty for local kids. Today, according to President and Executive Director Phil McHugh, the organization supports thousands of students from pre‑K through high school.

“We essentially are a fundraising organization that provides resources for low- to moderate-income families to allow their children to attend a Catholic school,” Phil explains. In the early days, much of that support was for tuition. The availability of school vouchers in Ohio has enabled the group to greatly broaden its reach. 

For example, CISE contracts with outside providers to ensure schools have nurses available each day (“Kids get sick five days a week,” he notes) and offer mental health services as needed. Rather than trying to develop expertise in every area, CISE finds organizations that already have it. “We’re not trying to be the best mental health specialist,” Phil says. “What we do is we find the best mental health specialists, and then we bring them into our kids.”

That approach extends to students with special needs. CISE partners with specialists who can work with children in Catholic schools, allowing siblings to remain together rather than forcing families to leave to obtain needed services. The specialists can also help classroom teachers learn how to reach individual students better.

CISE often uses pilot programs to test new ideas before expanding them. At Holy Family School, it helped fund a science-of-reading initiative in partnership with Mount St. Joseph University. After beginning at one school, the effort has expanded to four additional schools. “We like to pilot things in some schools, and then once they’re good, we roll them out,” Phil explains.

Career and technical education is a growing focus. Phil points to data showing large numbers of students enter college but don’t complete a degree. CISE is geared toward providing a pathway out of poverty, and college is not the best choice for everyone. “So what we’ve embraced is we have to have more than one pathway,” Phil says. “It might be technical, a trade, so an electrician, a plumber, a carpenter. It might be civil service, police, or fire.” CISE is now encouraging its high schools to let students cross-enroll in each other’s strongest CTE programs rather than each trying to offer everything.

For middle schoolers, the emphasis is more on career exposure. “They only know what they’ve seen, and we want to open their eyes,” says Phil. “It’s a big, broad world out there.” As part of that effort, CISE runs healthcare camps to help kids understand that there are many jobs in the medical world beyond nurses and doctors. 

CISE also seeds new schools when a community asks, such as Xavier Jesuit Academy, an all-boys school currently serving grades 3–7. “It was an area of town where the public high school had some of the lowest math scores in the state,” says Phil. “And where there was no faith-based school alternative.”

Supporting nearly 3,200 students across 13 elementary and 13 high schools, CISE is currently at a “high watermark.” “We want to spread the word more and more,” says Phil. Not to grow for the sake of growing, but so they can serve their current students well and provide the best education. 

The families CISE serves face significant disadvantages. Phil estimates “99 point something percent of our students are receiving the full EdChoice” scholarship amount, which means their household income is below 200 percent of the federal poverty level, or less than $55,000 for a family of three. 

While CISE’s support has taken different directions over the years, the core mission of helping children in inner-city Cincinnati get on a pathway to lifelong success has remained. “We provide an education and all the resources that these students need so that they can develop their God-given talents,” Phil explains. “Ideally,” he adds, this will “eventually lead them out of poverty.”