Jewish groups are divided over President Bush’s voucher plan, which would provide aid to parents while allowing them the choice of sending children to either public or private school.
Among the groups opposing the plan are the American Jewish Committee, American Jewish Congress, Anti-Defamation League, National Council of Jewish Women and the Union of American Hebrew Congregations.
In support of the plan are Agudath Israel of America and the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America.
The president’s plan, introduced in late May, would amend the existing Chapter I program, which provides remedial services to students at low-income schools — including religious and other private schools.
Under the president’s plan, instead of being provided services, eligible students would be given vouchers which they could use to purchase either remedial education in the public schools or for tuition at religious and other private schools.
As a courtesy to the president, the bill was introduced by several senators, including Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), the highest-ranking Democrat and republican on the Labor and Human Resources Committee.
Kennedy has also introduced his own choice-in-education bill. The senator’s bill does not include incentive for private school enrollment.
Last week, at a congressional hearing of the labor committee, Kennedy, the committee chairman, told Education Secretary Lamar Alexander of his continued ” serious reservations about the administration’s proposal to turn chapter I into a voucher program, and to include private schools in a choice program.”
Sen. Howard Metzenbaum (D-Ohio) told Alexander that the president’s proposal would be “destructive to the American public school system.”
Democrats opposing the president’s bill were Claiborne Pell of Rhode Island, Metzenbaum and Paul Simon of Illinois. Nancy Kassebaum, a Republican from Kansas, also expressed concern.
Metzenbaum argued that the quality of public schools would decline as better students would, as a result of incentives, opt to attend private schools.
” Frankly, you’re going to ruin the lives of millions of kids.” he said. “And our school system is bad enough. “
He singled out, for instance, the public schools in Cleveland, which he called “abominable.”
Alexander defended the president’s proposal by replying that “every school is different in America.”
Parents should be able “to choose among those schools frothier children” as “a fundamental part of creating the kind of education we believe America needs,” he said.
In testimony before the Labor and Human Resources committee, David Zwiebel, called for support of the proposed incentive plan. He cited Supreme Court decisions upholding instances of government funding being used for education expenses at private schools.
But Marc Stern, legal director of AJCongress, said that such a flow of funds has been only narrowly endorsed by the Supreme Court.
Moreover, Stern said, the amount under the proposed incentive program, which uncertain, would probably not exceed some $600 per child per year, “nowhere nearly enough to cover a year’s expense at a parochial school anyway.
“It is not going to increase choice, because if you can’t afford the rest, $600 will not make a difference. So it’s really just a subsidy for religious schools, “he said.
Mark Pelavin, AJCongress’ Washington representative, said the prestige of Bush’s proposal having been introduced by Kennedy and Hatch works against his group’s position.
The president is thus “guaranteed at least that his proposal will get a hearing before the committee.”
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.
