Posted on 10/14/2005 10:13:57 AM PDT by NYer
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) _ Catholic churches statewide are planning to blitz Albany like never before with up to 1.5 million postcards calling for a tax credit to offset religious- and private-school tuition. The effort would also provide tax credits for families with children in public schools and for all public- and private-school teachers to offset classroom expenses.
Supporters emphasize this isn't a voucher program, in which some states have allowed families to apply government per-pupil funding toward nonpublic school tuition. The proposals would provide a tax credit of up to $3,000 a year for a family with two or more children in school or in home school. Credits would decrease as the household income increases above $40,000. The tax credit would be used against a family's cost for books and other classroom supplies or to compensate for tuition at Catholic, Jewish, Lutheran or other private schools, religious and nonreligious. The proposal would also provide public and private school teachers a tax credit of up to $250 a year for classroom supplies they pay for themselves.
The cost to the state in reduced tax revenue _ and the benefit to families and teachers _ is estimated at $460 million a year, according to the bill. State Sen. Martin Golden, a Brooklyn Republican and the bill's co-sponsor, said the measure would also provide more funds directly to schools because families and teachers could spend more of their own money on supplies, computer software and other items if they can recover some of the cost. Tax credits reduce a tax bill and can be more beneficial than a tax deduction.
The timing for the tax credits is right, contends Dennis Poust of the New York State Catholic Conference. ``I think we're seeing a momentum shift for this and if we could produce a fraction of the amount of cards we printed, 300,000 or 400,000, they will have to take note of that because it will be constituents from every corner of the state,'' Poust said Thursday. ``I don't think the church in New York has done anything of this scale on a unified basis on any one issue,'' he said.
Gov. George Pataki said he would consider tax credits for families sending children to nonpublic schools. ``It's something I think we have to look at and we're going to be having some education reform proposals next year,'' Pataki said Tuesday.
The postcards have been provided at churches statewide in seven of the state's eight diocese. The Archdiocese in Manhattan plans to provide the postcards at Mass in November. The postcards seek names, addresses, e-mail addresses, phone numbers and the parish the sender attends. Directed to Pataki, state Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, the cards state: ``I strongly support education tax credits as a way to improve public, independent and religious schools and to help ALL parents offset the cost of educating their students.''
A year ago the same effort by the Brooklyn Diocese alone resulted in 90,000 postcards sent to Albany. In just the past year, 38 Catholic schools were closed statewide for financial reasons, about 20 of them in Brooklyn and Queens under the Brooklyn Diocese. There are about 750 Catholic schools statewide. The Legislature returns to session in January.
This is a better option than asking for "direct funding." The idiots in the Church who call for direct public money don't seem to realize that once you accept such money, it comes with strings attached.
I don't think this proposal is enough, I'm for vouchers, but even this I think will not get past the very powerful teachers union.
I think vouchers would be better but credits would be an EXTREME boon for low income families who want to send their kids to Catholic school.
I wish I knew where to get a post card, I attended a Catholic school in the Albany dioses and it was a tremendous burden for my parents.
Agreed. If it was up to me, I would just abolish public schools altogether. Now, the first reaction to that is that educatio is a public good, so we should all pay for everyone's schooling. Even if I accept that, fine. That does not mean that the governments need to actually operate the schools. Just abolosh them all and give everybody a $10,000 voucher. That would also solve a lot of the issues in the public schools right now. Let people who want their kids exposed to homosexuality at school send their kids to the "rainbow" school, and let the rest of us send our kids to schools that teach our values.
does anyone know where to get these post cards?
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