Bill would give tax credits for private schools
Sixth-graders at Solomon Schechter Day School of Essex and Union
attend a May 17 seminar on local Jewish agencies at the Aidekman
Jewish Community Campus in Whippany. Photo by Jared Fineberg
Sidebar: Local schools react
Idea: Pilot program that would allow corporate tax credits for contributions to fund scholarships for tuition at out-of-district public and nonpublic schools.
For: Proponents say it helps lower-income families choose better schools and offsets the high cost of day school education.
Against: Opponents say tax credits use public policy to increase the money going to private and religious schools and mostly benefit middle-class students who already choose private schools.
A bill that would provide corporate tax breaks for scholarships for private and parochial education is winning strong support from backers of Jewish day schools in New Jersey, even as it raises issues for others concerned with separation of church and state.
The proposal is called the Urban Schools Scholarship Act, and it would grant corporations up to $200,000 in tax write-offs if they were to provide scholarships to privately run secular or parochial schools.
If passed, it would establish a five-year pilot program in seven districts. In the program's first year, corporations would be limited to $24 million in tax credits, with increases of $24 million in succeeding years.
Three of the seven proposed pilot districts — Newark, Elizabeth, and Lakewood — have Jewish day schools.
Proponents maintain that parents who choose to send their children to private schools need some relief from a double burden of paying rising tuition fees on top of high property taxes.
"This is a problem that needs to be solved. The taxes keep creeping up, and the tuitions keep creeping up," said Israel Teitelbaum, cofounder of the Morristown-based Parents for Free Choice in Education.
Teitelbaum, a non-practicing Orthodox rabbi, has been an ardent advocate for state aid to private schools for the past 10 years.
"We are not advocating robbing any money from the public schools at all. The problem with the public schools is not money. The problem is a lack of competition," he argued. "It's like Economics 101. If you have competition you bring the cost down."
If the bill is passed, Teitelbaum believes, it will greatly benefit the poor inner-city areas where the pilot programs will be tested.
"The parents will save money and the children will go to a better school. They'll get a better education, taxpayers will pay less money, and crime will go down. People will benefit every which way."
The national Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America sent out an action alert to its members, urging support for the pilot program. "This could mean thousands of dollars in scholarships for children attending Yeshivas/Jewish day schools," says the alert.
It also says that Mayor Cory Booker of Newark endorses the bill and that it has the unanimous support of the Newark City Council.
Critics of the bill, however, say the bill is tantamount to a voucher system, which they claim violates the First Amendment by allowing direct state or federal money to offset the expenses of private education.
Proponents of the legislation, like Teitelbaum, are touting it as an extension of civil rights advocacy.
"We welcome any opportunity to have parents have their children educated where they wish and have that cost picked up by the taxpayer," said Dan Gaby, a retired West Orange advertising executive who serves as executive director of Excellent Education for Everyone.
Gaby describes himself as a "non-Orthodox Jew" who supports the bill in the interest of better education in secular as well as religious settings.
He called the state's public schools "an absolute train wreck."
"For 30 years they have been given tremendous sums of money. I don't see why children should be trapped in them. The point of the scholarships is that parents can afford to send the children to someplace other than a public school."
But Martin Cotler, a retired school teacher and administrator who lives in Maplewood, disagrees vehemently that the bill would benefit the poor or underprivileged.
A veteran of the public school system in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, he believes that many inner-city youngsters would suffer — not thrive — in private settings.
"If Mr. Teitelbaum thinks he can take the kids I dealt with and put them into a religious school and get them to function, he has got another thing coming," said Cotler.
Cotler also argued that the scholarship bill is unconstitutional.
"Giving people a religious education is not the government's business. The government has a compelling interest in having an educated public, not in giving them a religious foundation. Our founding fathers were not all that religious. This business about ‘you can't be a moral person without a religious foundation' — fine; they're entitled to it. I'm entitled to a Cadillac if I can pay for it. If I can't pay for it, I'll take a Chevy."
At this point, the bill has bipartisan support in both houses of the legislature. According to Gaby's headcount, "we have a majority on both the Senate and Assembly education committees."
But he lamented that the two committee chairs, State Sen. Shirley Turner (D-Dist. 15) and Assemblyman Craig Stanley (D-Dist. 28), "won't post the bills for a vote because they oppose them. They know they will lose if there is a vote."
Neither Turner nor Stanley was available for comment.
Non-Orthodox Jewish groups and community councils have tended to oppose vouchers and other state funding for private schools. In recent years, however, with the rise of day school attendance, some of these groups have begun to challenge their own strict separationist views.
Lori Price Abrams, director of the Community Relations Committee of United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ, said her committee is still studying the legislation. "There are not too many Jews who will directly benefit since the scholarships must go toward students residing in the named communities," she said. "However, the Jewish community may have an interest in getting a foothold in the event that the policy may have broader application after this five-year demonstration."
Directions to Aidekman Campus
Copyright © 2010 The Jewish Federations of North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved