New Jersey Governor Warns Against Proposed Change in Federal School Aid Law

Governor Richard J. Hughes of New Jersey warned here tonight that proposed legislative changes in the Federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act would imperil the significant achievements of the Act, which, he said, has already benefitted more than 8,000,000 children through improved educational programs.

Addressing the 1,000 Jewish rabbinic and lay leaders attending the dinner of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, Governor Hughes particularly scored a bill sponsored by Rep. Albert H. Quie of Minnesota, which would channel Federal aid funds through the state governments instead of directly to the school districts as under the present law.

If the changes proposed in the Quie measure are adopted, Gov. Hughes declared, “private school students, now beginning to participate in publicly sponsored educational programs, would find their participation hobbled, in many cases prevented, by the constitutions of almost three dozen states. In place of the friendly consultations between public school and private school educators now going on at the local level all around America, in a spirit of friendship and cooperation, private school educators would have to go, hat in hand, to necessarily hostile state departments of education.”

Rabbi Joseph Karasick, national president of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations, announced the establishment of the World Conference of Ashkenazi and Sephardi Synagogues which will deal with major problems of Jewish religious and social life in all parts of the world as well as with issues of peace and war, poverty and human rights. He said that an international leadership meeting of the Conference will take place June 2-4 in Geneva.