N.Y. State Bill to Bar Bias in Education May Be Amended to Meet Catbolic Objections

The possibility of amending the Austin-Mahoney Bill, which bars discrimination by institutions of higher learning in New York State, so as to meet the objections of the Catholic Church, was reported to be under consideration here today by groups which are supporting the measure. It is understood that the amendments would make more explicit the exemption granted to religious and secular institutions.

Archbishop Francis J. MoIntyre of the Archdiocese of New York yesterday termed the bill “communistic” and said that it “states that education is a function of the State,” and would therefore encroach on the rights of parents. Among those who took issue today with the Archbishop were Dr. Guy Emery Shipler, editor of the Churchman; Dr. Alvin Johnson, president emeritus of the New School for Social Research; and Edward S. Lewis, executive director of the Urban League, leading Negro community group.

Shad Polier, vice-president of the American Jewish Congress, which has sponsored the bill, which would serve as a precedent for other states, said last night that “to label public responsibility for education ‘communistic’ is to undo more than a century of American tradition and practice. Such labels as communistic and un-Amarican will not persuade this country to set the clock back to the day when education was considered a purely private concern.”