Yeshivas to Receive $2 Million from New N.Y. State Bill

Jewish all-day elementary and high schools in New York State will receive more than $2 million additional state aid from the new “Aid to Non-Public Schools” bill introduced today by Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller, according to Rabbi Moshe Sherer, executive president Agudath Israel of America, who has been involved in the development of the measure. Rabbi Sherer said that with this sum added to the amount the yeshivas will receive from the 1970 Mandated Soviet Law, the Jewish all-day schools will receive $4 million in state aid during the 1971-72 school year. The Rockefeller bill calls for $33 million in grants to non-public schools as partial reimbursement for their expenses in providing secular services to children. The non-public schools will receive a year per child in each elementary school and $72 a year per child in the high schools. Those are recognized by the federal government as serving a high concentration of students form very low families will receive an additional $54 per student. Rabbi Sherer declared that while he has “no up on the concept of a parent-aid bill as the most suitable vehicle for the state to help resolve the financial problems of the non-public schools,” the new bill “is a landmark move forward in the ongoing process of the recognition by the government of its responsibility to share in the funding of the scholar education of children attending non-public schools.” The bill prevents an actual expansion of private-school system. The Committee for Public Education and Religious Liberty (PEARL), the umbrella group for organizations opposing public aid to private schools, opposes the Rockefeller on both Constitutional and economic grounds. New revenues may be required to fund the proposed new aid program.