Hebrew Day School’s Head Lauds Passage of Non-public School Aid Bill

The State Legislature’s approval over the weekend of $33 million in additional grants to non-public schools–more than $2 million of which will go to Jewish all-day elementary and high schools–was hailed today by Dr. Joseph Kaminetsky, national director of the National Association of Hebrew Day Schools. “Once again,” he said in a telegram to Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller and the Legislature, “the Empire State has demonstrated its leadership in this break-through legislation of alleviating the burdensome cost which has beset the 55,000 children of our educational system. We applaud the unity that this legislation represents in recognizing the inestimable contribution our non-public schools are making to the total community.” The $33 million grants had been proposed by Rockefeller in his “Aid to Non-Public Schools” bill. They are earmarked for “acceptable secular educational services. Rabbi Moshe Sherer, executive president of Agudath Israel of America said today that the bill does not “prevent an actual expansion of the private-school system,” as reported in the JTA Daily News Bulletin of May 27. The bill, he said, more accurately “limits the aid of the state to existing schools or to schools formed by the consolidation or merger of existing schools.” He added that “very few elementary-and secondary-level yeshivas opened in New York State in the past few years.” Dr. Kaminetsky will confer next Monday in the Young Israel Building, with Dr. Thomas W. Heath, state coordinator for non-public school services, “in order for our principals to be informed of the particulars of this bill.” He reported that according to Dr. Heath, the June 3 checks to the yeshivas under the 1970 Mandated Services Act were not mailed as scheduled, “due to the state’s financial condition.”