Religious leaders press for vouchers

"I really don't understand it," Bishop Howard J. Hubbard said. "It's always baffled me."

While religious hospitals, charities, daycare centers and colleges can receive government funding, attempts to implement vouchers or tuition tax credits that would provide parents with the opportunity to choose a religious school for their child have met with resistance.

"It's a form of religious bigotry left over from the 19th century that has carried over into the 20th," Bishop Hubbard said. "I think it's also mixed up with a false understanding of the First Amendment."

Rabbi Sholem Ber Hecht, chairman of the National Committee for the Furtherance of Jewish Education, agreed with the Bishop. "The First Amendment was never intended to deny the concept of religion; it was to prevent a state religion," Rabbi Hecht said. "Somehow, supporting religion in general has come to mean support of no religion. The country was founded on the belief that religion is very important."

The lack of parental choice can interfere with family life, Rabbi Hecht said, noting: "If a parent teaches a child at home a certain faith or ethics [and these aren't supported at school], in a sense the public school is giving a negative education. We don't want schools to undermine religious education."

Rabbi Hecht and Bishop Hubbard joined with Rev. Ruben Diaz, president of the New York Hispanic Clergy Organization, to issue a joint call for tuition tax credits or educational vouchers to foster greater parental choice in education. They called on the Governor and State Legislature to expand the concept of school choice to enable parents to select private or faith-based elementary and high schools for their children.

Precedent

"Vouchers or tuition tax credits are a logical next step," Rabbi Hecht said. "Funding reading, writing and arithmetic within private and religious schools is no more a violation of the separation of church and state than is the current practice of funding transportation, physical education and lunch programs in these schools."

Support of the state's new charter school law demonstrates the support of providing parental choice in education, Bishop Hubbard said.

"Charter schools have been an important first step," he said. "We urge the Governor and the Legislature to step forward and enable parents to choose the education they deem best for their child. It is hard to imagine a more essential element of parental choice than the right of a parent to guide a child's moral, spiritual and intellectual development in accord with one's conscience and beliefs."

Needs

"Our parishioners are members of the minority community," he said. "They are poor. Day after day, they send their children off to schools that are not their choice. It is human to give parents the choice of sending children to a better private school."

Rev. Diaz said public outcry at using tax money to fund things religious exists only for children. "A few months ago, our tax money went to fund religious art that offended," he said, referring to the painting of the Madonna covered with elephant dung that is on display at the Brooklyn Museum of Art.

Public and private

However, he noted that John Chubb, an educational analyst for the Brookings Institute, has found that the best way to improve public education is through a system of competition and choice. The general public supports this, Bishop Hubbard said, with a variety of polls showing a significant level of public support for school choice.

"Many factors have contributed to this shift in public opinion," he said, "including low test scores, especially among inner-city students; increased school violence, epitomized by the tragedy at Columbine High; and the failure of the much touted but short-lived movement for self-esteem development and values clarification."

Rabbi Hecht said school choice would save the public money and improve the state's education system. He said the cost to educate a child in the New York City public schools is between $7,000 and $10,000 while the per pupil cost in the city's Jewish schools is between $4,000 and $6,000. The public school would keep the difference and be able to channel the funds to where they are needed.

Public forum

"It all depends on what the issue is," Bishop Hubbard said. "We didn't hear complaints when religious groups were involved in the civil rights movement or in protesting Vietnam. If it's something [some] people don't like, you're told to shut up."

According to James Cultrara, associate director for education of the New York State Catholic Conference, school choice should be important to all Catholics, whether they have school-aged children or not.

Tuition tax credits or vouchers would save taxpayers money creating less of a tax burden on local communities, he said. In addition, tax credits or vouchers are a wise investment in the future.

"Religious schools provide students with a strong moral compass," Mr. Cultrara said. "Students leave religious schools as morally sound individuals, ready to participate in society guided by morals. In a time of violence and disrespect, we need more of a moral education."

(12-16-99) [[In-content Ad]]