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October 22, 2005
Union
of Orthodox Jewish Congregations
Refutes Critics of Katrina Education
Relief Bills; "Just Because they Shout
'Voucher' Doesn't Make It So"
On Thurs., Oct. 20, a
bipartisan group of US Senators (Kennedy, Enzi, Alexander &
Dodd) introduced legislation to provide federal aid to schools
around the nation that have taken in thousands of k-12 students
displaced Hurricane Katrina. The legislation (s1904) is the
product of several weeks of intensive negotiations among the
senators and with representatives of the stakeholder schools on
the ground - including Nathan Diament, UOJCA public policy
director, who issued the following statement in response to
critics of the proposal:
In recognition that the effects of Katrina were broad and
unprecedented, S1904 proposes unprecedented relief - $6000 per
displaced child to every school that has taken in these children
- including nonpublic (whether secular or parochial) schools.
The inclusion of the nonpublic schools in the aid program is
founded upon the simple recognition that just as the hurricane
didn't discriminate among the families it displaced, neither
should the federal relief response.
Extremist critics -
including the ACLU, Nat'l Education Assn. and Americans for
Separation of Church & State - of any kind of federal aid to
nonpublic schools no matter the circumstance denounced the
proposal as a "voucher" plan and "unconstitutional." It is
critical to recognize both these charges - intended to be
politically incendiary - are simply wrong; that shouting
"voucher" and "unconstitutional" doesn't make it so.
First, the relief
proposal is not a "voucher" plan. The key element of a
"school voucher" plan is to apply market forces to k-12 schools
- to place them in competition with one another for the students
and the funding they bring with them via the voucher. Thus, the
schools are forced to improve or, if they fail to attract
students, lose funding and close. The relief proposal in the
Enzi-Kennedy bill does not place schools in competition with one
another. The public schools that have taken in
Katrina-displaced students will receive $6000 per student
whether the Jewish, Catholic or secular private schools receive
reimbursements or not. To say the nonpublic schools ought not
receive the same support for undertaking the same compassionate
response to the disaster is nothing but discriminatory. Second,
the relief proposal is constitutional. Under governing Supreme
Court precedents, government aid delivered indirectly to
parochial schools due to the personal choices of parents is
constitutional (Zelman v. Simmons Harris). So too, government
aid delivered directly to parochial schools as part of a broader
aid program for secular purposes on the basis of
religion-neutral criteria is constitutional. (Agostini v Felton,
Mitchell v. Helms). While the UOJCA retains concerns over some
provisions of s1904 and how they might impede the pragmatic
implementation of this relief program, we reject the incendiary
rhetoric of the extremist enemies of the nonpublic school
community and their calls for discrimination in disaster relief.
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