When Anti-CRT Becomes Anti-Care: Navigating Curricular Controversies Amid Voucher-Induced Changes to a Private Religious School Landscape.

This article examines the ethical and curricular challenges faced by teachers in private religious schools that accept public voucher funding, focusing on a fictive case study of a middle school teacher at Holy Family, a suburban Catholic school in Ohio. As voucher programs like Ohio's EdChoice expand access to private religious education for economically and racially diverse families, these schools experience demographic shifts alongside political tensions fueled by anti-critical race theory (CRT) rhetoric, which frames such schools as politically neutral spaces free from "divisive concepts." The case highlights how the teacher's efforts to enact critical care—addressing systemic racism through curriculum aligned with Catholic Social Teachings—prompt polarized parental responses, revealing conflicts between the school's mission to care for marginalized students and some families' resistance to antiracist pedagogy. The article situates these dynamics within broader trends of voucher expansion, racialized school choice, and the complex balance private religious schools must navigate between ethical responsibilities to students and pressures from families and institutional stakeholders.