Aj Congress Study Shows Taxpayers Being Topped to Support Financing Parochial Schools

A nationwide survey by the American Jewish Congress has found that groups seeking public funds for parochial schools are stepping up their demands to the point of asking for “parity”–the same financing for sectarian schools as for public schools. The study, made public yesterday, cited these developments: In Missouri and California, identical Federal lawsuits have been filed asking that both states be compelled to finance non-public schools with Federal, state and local tax money to the same extent as public schools and demanding that the provisions in the state constitutions forbidding the use of tax moneys for sectarian schools be declared invalid under the Federal Constitution on the ground that they discriminate unfairly in favor of public schools; in Pennsylvania, a 1968 law giving $4.8 million in direct aid to religiously-affiliated schools was amended this year to give $23 million for the coming school year. In Michigan, a “purchase-of-services” bill costing the state $22 million during the first year of operation will cost $40 million in the 1971-72 fiscal year; in Ohio, a 1969 law underwriting part of the cost of salaries of lay teachers in parochial schools will cost taxpayers $45 million during the current school year. This amounts to $50 for each child in Ohio’s non-public schools. In New York, the Legislature passed a bill giving non-public schools public funds–amounting to $28 million–for the first time. The declared purpose of the measure was to defray the cost of keeping attendance and other records required by the state.

In a statement commenting on the demand for “parity,” the American Jewish Congress declared: “No one doubts that the public schools are in trouble today. Starved for funds, they are criticized both for being too progressive and for not moving with the times. Not infrequently they are charged with promoting racial segregation; no less frequently they are accused of failing to give sufficient recognition to the rights of minorities to distinctive cultural expression and group responsibility. Saddled with responsibility for dealing with more and more problems having little or nothing to do with education, our public schools need more funds, not more competition for public support…Private and parochial schools have a place in American education and a free society. But they have no call on the public purse for support. The “parity” they are now demanding means the destruction of public education as we have known it in this country.”