The '''Poughkeepsie plan''' or '''Faribault–Stillwater plan''' was an arrangement contrived in 1873 in Poughkeepsie, New York, to satisfy both the desire of American Catholics to educate their children in a Catholic environment and their preference to have schooling paid for with public funds.
== Plan == The arrangement was worked out between Father Patrick F. McSweeny and the Poughkeepsie School Board.<ref name=McGreevy>{{Cite book |title=Catholicism and American Freedom: A History |last=McGreevy |first=John |authorlink=John McGreevy |year=2003 |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |location=New York |pages=[https://archive.org/details/catholi_mcg_2003_00_6713/page/120 120–122] |isbn=978-0-393-04760-8 |oclc=51093310 |url=https://archive.org/details/catholi_mcg_2003_00_6713/page/120 }}</ref> From the 1840s, the school board rented almost all rooms and buildings used as schools in an effort to keep costs low.<ref name=Justice>{{Cite book |title=The War That Wasn't: Religious Conflict and Compromise in the Common Schools of New York State, 1865–1900 |last=Justice |first=Benjamin |year=2009 |location=New York |publisher=State University of New York Press |pages=197–198 |isbn=978-0-7914-6212-6 |oclc=276340273}}</ref> Over the decades, the school board rented several churches on weekdays and sundry other kinds of buildings, including theaters that stood vacant during the day and disused factories.<ref name=Justice/>
In 1873, Father McSweeny, rector of St. Peter's parish and its parochial school, approached the school board with what historian Benjamin Justice calls "an offer it could not refuse", the use of two newly renovated parochial school buildings for the rent of $1 per year.<ref name=Justice/> The school board would pay for all school operating expenses and repairs.<ref name=Justice/> The parish would retain ownership of the buildings and complete use of them outside school hours.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |last=Walch |first=Timothy |editor=Lasley, Thomas J. II |editor2=Hunt, Thomas C. |editor3=Raisch, C. Daniel |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Educational Reform and Dissent |title=Poughkeepsie plan |year=2010 |publisher=SAGE Publications |location=Thousand Oaks, CA |isbn=978-1-4129-5664-2 |oclc=424331033 |pages=718–719}}</ref>
The arrangement was that the school board hired nuns belonging to the Sisters of Charity, who taught wearing their habits.<ref name=McGreevy/><ref name=Skinner>{{Cite news |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1898/12/25/102130079.pdf |format=PDF |title=Religion in the Schools; State Supt. Skinner Finds the "Poughkeepsie Plan" Unlawful. City Must Own its Own Houses; Teachers Must Be Required to Discontinue Use of Distinguishing Garbs of Orders |date=December 25, 1898 |newspaper=The New York Times}}</ref>
For his part, Father McSweeny agreed, "No religious exercises to be held, nor religious instruction given during the school hours."<ref name=McGreevy/> The schools were formally non-sectarian, admitting children of all faiths, but in practice, they were attended by the children of Catholic families.<ref name=McGreevy/><ref name=Justice/>
From the perspective of the city, the virtually-free buildings meant that the schools cost only half what other public schools cost to operate.<ref name=Justice/> The Catholic parents and church were pleased because the school board agreed to define the school day as running from 9 a.m. to noon and from 1:30 p.m. to 4 p.m.<ref name=Justice/> In practical terms, that meant that the 8:45 morning prayers took place before school hours, a short prayer was held after the official morning session ended at noon, a 30-minute period of religious instruction took place after the lunch hour but before the school day resumed, and a closing prayer was said after the school day ended.<ref name=Justice/>
== Response == A Catholic newspaper, the ''New York Freeman'', condemned the plan as a watering down of true Catholic education.<ref name=Justice/> Most of the negative responses, however, came as part of the broader debate over America's common schools from people committed to the idea that having all children attend the same public school was an important way of Americanizing the children of immigrants.<ref name=McGreevy/><ref name=Justice/> Historian Benjamin Justice was unable to discover that there was any opposition in Poughkeepsie itself.<ref name=Justice/>
Archbishop John Ireland of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis admired the plan and put it into effect in two towns in his diocese, Faribault, Minnesota, and Stillwater, Minnesota.<ref name=McGreevy/><ref name=Walch>{{Cite encyclopedia |last=Walch |first=Timothy |editor=Lasley, Thomas J. II |editor2=Hunt, Thomas C. |editor3=Raisch, C. Daniel |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Educational Reform and Dissent |title=Farribault-Stillwater plan |year=2010 |publisher=SAGE Publications |location=Thousand Oaks, CA |isbn=978-1-4129-5664-2 |oclc=424331033 |pages=717–718}}</ref> Because Ireland was regarded as dangerously Modernist by many other senior members of the hierarchy of the Catholic Church in the era, his support for the Poughkeepsie plan probably helped crystallize Catholic opposition to the model.<ref name=McGreevy/>
In 1898, the New York State Superintendent of Schools ruled the plan illegal. The plan ended when he threatened to cut off school funding to Poughkeepsie.<ref name=Skinner/>
== References == {{Reflist}}
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Category:Education in Poughkeepsie, New York Category:Catholic schools in the United States