Letter: Catholics pay twice for their children's education

MAY I ASSURE John C Martin (Letters, 18 April) that Catholics do not seek to force atheists to subsidise their schools, hence no injustice arises.

Catholics too pay taxes of one sort or another and as such contribute to the national exchequer along with their non-Catholic fellow citizens. In addition, they pay into their diocesan Education Fund, which is levied on the parishes on a per capita basis.

If any Catholic taxpayer is then fortunate enough to send his son or daughter to a Catholic public school, he will be required to pay at a third level.

If the Catholic church were to close its schools and place all its pupils in the state system, on a straight cashflow basis, the state would be the loser, as the facts would show.

R C Gretton

Southend-on-Sea, Essex