Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller is guilty of “violating his oath of office” and of asking legislators to do the same in proposing a parochiaid bill that would “clearly contravene the express prohibition in the State Constitution against the use of state funds for maintenance of sectarian schools,” it was asserted by Leo Pfeffer, attorney for the Committee for Public Education and Religious Liberty (PEARL).
Rockefeller’s bid for $30.75 million for “health and safety grants…necessary maintenance and repair programs” in non-public schools is “obviously an attempt to frustrate the will of the people.” Pfeffer said, noting that the state’s voters in 1967 rejected, by almost 3 to 1, such aid to private schools. This past Jan., the $33 million 1971 Secular Educational Services Act was declared unconstitutional by a three-judge federal court.
Pfeffer, addressing a PEARL dinner Thursday night in his honor said he had warned Rockefeller, State Education Commissioner Ewald Nyquist and Comptroller Arthur Levitt in telegrams that he would challenge the new measure in court as “unconstitutional on its face.” A plaque citing his guardianship of “the wall of separation of church and state” was presented to Pfeffer by William F. Haddad, executive co-chairman of PEARL.
Assemblyman Albert H. Blumenthal (D. Manhattan) declared: “It is no more right for the government to subsidize a separate school system based on religion or economic status than it is to subsidize one based on race. We should be devoting our efforts to rebuilding the public schools and making them a place where children can learn together rather than separately.” Haddad gave Blumenthal a petition with 30,000 signatures asking the State Legislature to “protect public education and religious liberty.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
