Jewish Congress Seeks Veto on Giving Textbooks to Religious Schools

The American Jewish Congress today called on Governor Rockefeller to veto a bill approved in the State Assembly and in the State Senate yesterday under which the state would reimburse local school boards for “lending” textbooks to private and parochial schools. Murray A. Gordon, chairman of the New York Metropolitan Council of the Congress, said in a telegram to the Governor:

“The State of New York dare not rob the public schools to help the private and religious schools. At a time when essential services are being denied to public school children, at a moment when the Legislature has refused to increase the formula for state aid to the New York City schools, funds are found to give to schools that are privately controlled and that are operated by sectarian institutions. We believe that the 1965 Ferrall-Mangano Law, to which the new bill is an amendment, clearly violates the state and federal constitutions, and we intend to challenge it in the courts.”