Federal aid to parochial schools was criticized today in a resolution adopted here by 1, 000 delegates to the biennial convention of the National Council of Jewish Women.
The resolution asserted that “people are fleeing the public schools in some areas — even more so now that private education is receiving public subsidy. Aid to sectarian schools can only serve to undercut the public school system which is a cornerstone of democracy.”
The statement deplored the fact that “those left in the public schools are chosen from poor and culturally-disadvantaged homes. ” The resolution warned that “this has aggravated racial isolation which robs the minority group children of pride, and deprives the majority group of the opportunity to learn to work and to play with children from different backgrounds.”
The delegates added that the NCJW “has no doubt that segregated education means inferior education. Though all communities cannot integrate their schools at the same rate, all communities must still move forward.”
The delegates adopted the resolution after hearing a warning that private and parochial schools which are receiving federal aid under the child benefit concept of the new federal education law were already “laying the groundwork for still larger claims to public funds.”
The warning was made by Aaron Goldmann, chairman of the National Community Relations Advisory Council, who said that the development posed a serious threat to public education. He said “with our public schools already in desperate straits, how do we deal with this diversion of public monies into non-public schools?”
Rabbi Joachim Prinz, chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, called for renewed emphasis on Jewish education both in this country and abroad. Deploring the increasing independence of American Jewish youth from “Jewish organization, Jewish religion, Jewish tradition and a Jewish future. ” he warned the delegates that if the community did not pay more attention to the education of its youth, “within one or two generations,” Jewish tradition “will become neglected and even forgotten.”
Israeli Ambassador Avraham Harman awarded the NCJW a citation in honor of the 20th anniversary of its support to the John Dewey School of Education at the Hebrew University. Vice-President Humphrey is scheduled to deliver a major address at the convention’s banquet, Thursday evening. It will be Mr. Humphrey’s first public speech since his return from his important mission to Europe.
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.
