 In the 1880s most states passed a constitutional amendment, called Blaine Amendments, forbidding tax money be used to fund parochial schools, which affected also Lutherans and other denominations that operated schools.By 1890 the Irish, who controlled the Church in the U.S., had built an extensive network of parishes and parish schools ("parochial schools") across the urban Northeast and Midwest.The Irish and other Catholic ethnic groups looked to parochial schools not only to protect their religion, but to enhance their culture and language.