A referendum on whether the State of Maryland should provide State-funded assistance to parochial and other non-public elementary and high schools was defeated Tuesday by about 60,000 votes out of almost a million cast. Maryland’s Gov. Marvin Mandel who is Jewish, backed the program which would have provided tuition grants of from $75 to $200 per child a year to families with a gross annual income of less than $12,000.
The financial assistance plan which would have cost the State about $12.1 million annually had been jeopardized recently by court decisions nullifying similar proposals in other states. Gov. Mandel had anticipated defeat of his proposal. He had said earlier that he hoped the State could work out some other form of assistance for the financially hard pressed private schools.
The referendum was the only one of 17 Constitutional amendments that was not ratified in Tuesday’s election. A lottery also backed by Mandel was adopted by a 3-1 margin. A proposal in the US House of Representatives to bring about federal aid for parents of children in private schools was adopted by the Ways and Means Committee in mid-Oct. but was not presented to a vote in the closing days before Congress adjourned. Both the Washington suburbs in nearby Maryland and the Baltimore area have Jewish day schools.
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