The Congress could help “stop pocketbook persuasion which forces a parent to send his children to public schools against his will because of skyrocketing costs of non-public education” by passing the Tuition Tax Credit Act, Rabbi Moshe Sherer, executive president of Agudath Israel of America, told a hearing of the Senate Finance Committee yesterday.
This act, introduced by Sen. Daniel P. Moynihan (D.NY) and Sen. Bob Packwood (R.Ore.), allows parents of students attending any type of school from elementary through higher education, to deduct a 50 percent tax credit, up to a maximum of $500 annually per dependent student for tuition payments. This credit would be fully refundable, including to families which pay no taxes.
Sherer stated that the Packwood-Moynihan bill would help partially end the injustice from which non-public school parents suffer because they are “victims of double taxation.” He pointed out to the Senators at the committee hearing that this bill “breaks the constitutional barrier which has obstructed certain other methods of assistance” because it helps people instead of schools, covers all classes of parents regardless if their children attend public or non-public schools, and is federally designed.”
He added: “The overwhelming majority of Jewish parents sending their children to yeshivas are poor or middle class people who are reeling at the ropes from the financial pressures of meeting tuition payments, often at the expense of denying their families basic needs.”
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