Jewish advocates of governmental support for non-public schools, including Hebrew day schools, received sympathetic attention today from a subcommittee of the Republican resolutions committee gathering testimony for the Republican Party’s platform.
Comprehensive statements were presented by Rabbi Moshe Sherer, of New York, president of the Citizens Relief for Education by Income Tax (CREDIT), and Moses I. Feuerstein of Boston, executive committee chairman of Torah Umesorah, the National Society for Hebrew Day Schools.
Rabbi Sherer is executive president of Agudath Israel of America. He appeared before the subcommittee with Robert N. Lynch, executive director of Parents for Nonpublic Education, an organization of Catholic parents, and Ivan E. Zylstra, CREDIT’s executive director who was a member of President Nixon’s panel on nonpublic education.
“The moment we compel a parent to send his child to a public school, not by constitutional coercion but by pocketbook persuasion,” Rabbi Sherer said, “we are violating one of the precepts of open educational choice that has been the hallmark of our nation since colonial days.” CREDIT, he said, is a Washington-based coalition of non-public school leaders organized six months ago to speak for 5,000,000 nonpublic school children.
During his testimony, Rabbi Sherer suggested a tax credit of $200 to parents of each child in a non-public school. Mrs. Louisa Jambor, a delegate from Kansas, questioned the sufficiency of this amount, pointing out she has two children in military schools and their costs to her is $6000 per annum.
Feuerstein reported that the country now has “some” 400 Hebrew day schools of which 270 are elementary and 130 secondary schools located in 150 cities in 32 states with a total enrollment of 82,000 pupils.
On the average, he said, approximately 40 percent of their budgets are covered by tuition. “The tuition rates,” he said, “are approximately $350 to $400 per year, but in the large metropolitan communities, where the majority of these schools are found, a large percentage of the parents have very limited economic earnings which makes them dependent on tuition grants should they wish to enroll their children in a Hebrew day school.”
In New York City, he said, half of the Jewish children attend Hebrew day schools. Nearly 120 of the city’s 181 schools are located in poverty areas, he continued, and about 35,000 pupils attend such schools in poor and lower middle class areas.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
