Council for American Private Education (CAPE)

The Council for American Private Education (CAPE) is a not-for-profit umbrella organization of national associations that serve religious and independent elementary and secondary schools. According to its articles of incorporation, CAPE was established in 1971 to “provide a framework for communication and cooperation” among its member organizations and to foster collaboration “between private schools and their public school counterparts” and “between private schools and various branches and agencies of the federal, state, and local governments.” Additional purposes enumerated in CAPE's founding document include “encouraging a vigorous diversity in education to match our country's heritage of pluralism,” improving opportunities for families “to have a realistic choice among schools,” fostering a “broad public commitment to excellence in education,” and involving “private schools in the nation's educational tasks.”

At its inception, CAPE had eight member organizations: the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod, the Friends Council on Education, the National Association of Episcopal Schools, the National Association of Independent Schools, the National Catholic Educational Association, the National Society for Hebrew Day Schools, the National Union of Christian Schools (now known as Christian Schools International), and the United States Catholic Conference (now known as the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops). By 2008, CAPE had 18 members: Agudath Israel of America, the American Montessori Society, the Association Montessori International–USA, the Association of Christian Teachers and Schools, the Association of Christian Schools International, the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America, Christian Schools International, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Friends Council on Education, the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod, the National Association of Episcopal Schools, the National Association of Independent Schools, the National Catholic Educational Association, the National Christian School Association, the Oral Roberts University Educational Fellowship, the Seventh-day Adventist Board of Education, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, and the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod Schools. CAPE also had state-level affiliates in 31 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. Collectively, CAPE's member organizations and state affiliates represent a substantial majority of the private school community in the United States, a community that in 2005, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, encompassed nearly 29,000 schools enrolling more than 5 million students.

CAPE provides a voice for a minority segment of American students, namely, those who attend religious and independent schools. With vast resources devoted in the United States to promoting the education of students in public schools, CAPE's mission (“to preserve and promote educational pluralism so that parents have a choice in the schooling of their children”) runs contrary to the view held by some in society that all children should be educated in public schools. Rejecting the notion that a single government-run system of schools best serves the nation, CAPE supports diversity in education, not only because it reflects the nation's nature but also because it supports the common good. As described on CAPE's Web site: