The New York State Assembly approved by a huge majority yesterday an expansion of the hotly-debated 1965 law allowing public school boards to provide religious and other non-public schools with any textbooks they request.
After the Assembly vote, the Senate also passed the measure. Gov. Rockefeller, who signed the 1965 measure, will sign the new one. In debate preceding the vote, arguments focused — as they did last year –on the constitutionality of the measure. Several Jewish organizations have opposed such bills as violating the state and federal requirements of church-state separation. A suit challenging the constitutionality of the 1965 law has been started by the East Greenbush school district. The 1965 measure becomes effective next September 1.
The 1965 law permits local school boards in the state to “lend” textbooks to pupils in the seventh through twelfth grades in non-public schools. The state would reimburse the local boards up to $10 per pupil. The bill passed by the Legislature empowers the state to reimburse local school boards up to $25 per pupil in the first year and $10 per pupil annually thereafter. Under the bill, any money spent by local boards above the $25 and $10 limits can be included by the local board in its operating expenses on which state aid to school districts is based. Foes of the measure said this “loophole” made the $25 and $10 limits meaningless.
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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.
