While the vast majority of Vermont students are eligible for the vouchers, which pay the full cost of up to two college classes, students who attend religious and other private schools are not.

Most Catholic schools across the country did not sanction walkouts, but planned to support youth-led advocacy through prayer.

"Anxiety is the number one problem," a program spokeswoman said.

Now more than half of the 28 Jesuit colleges and universities in the United States have issued such statements.

Of the estimated 14.5 million school-age Catholic children in the U.S., about or 55 percent are Latino. Yet 4 percent of school-age Latino Catholic children are enrolled in Catholic schools.

Five players on the US Olympic team's roster of 23 are from the Jesuit-run school -- two are recent graduates and three are current students taking a leave of absence for the Pyeongchang Games.