Church-school Issues Cause Major Controversy in Three Eastern States

The question of state financial aid to religious-affiliated schools provoked controversy today in three eastern states and, in New York, threatened to raise a divisive religious influence in the November election campaign.

In New York State, the church-state issue will be a major point of controversy in the submission of a new Constitution to the electorate. In Pennsylvania, the battle lines were forming on the Mullen Bill, a measure pending in the General Assembly to permit public funds to be used for parochial schools. In New Jersey, school boards throughout the state found themselves burdened with expenditures greater than anticipated for busing children to parochial schools under a new law that entered effect last month.

The proposed new Constitution on which New Yorkers will have to pass in November, eliminates the Blaine Amendment, a 73-year-old prohibition against the use of public funds for parochial schools. Cardinal Spellman has endorsed the new Constitution as has Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. The New York Times and the New York Post have editorially called for its defeat, the former pointing out that the repeal of the Blaine Amendment would “breach the already battered wall of separation between church and state in New York, particularly in the touchy area of education.”

The Mullen Bill in Pennsylvania seeks to bypass a constitutional prohibition against use of Commonwealth funds for any sectarian school by creating a State Nonpublic School Authority that would “purchase secular educational services” from private schools in the state. The measure, now in the House Appropriations Committee, has received strong Catholic support and support from the Beth Jacob Hebrew Schools of Philadelphia. The Council of Churches and the American Jewish Congress have taken strong opposition positions. The Pennsylvania State Education Association has strongly denounced the bill.

Operation of the New Jersey law, extending the obligation of local school boards to provide transportation to parochial-school pupils, has indicated that the local boards will have to shoulder considerably more of the cost than originally contemplated while the State’s share would be reduced from about 75% to 65%. Further, the local boards will not be reimbursed for their expenditures for about two years, putting an additional burden on their funds.