If Gov. David Paterson gets past the continuing controversies over his private life, he may emerge as a formidable advocate for private-school families.
Paterson “is a friend to efforts to secure help for tuition-paying families,” says Michael Tobman of Teach NYS, the group lobbying for a tax break for private school parents. “As Senate minority leader he supported the 2006 education tax credit campaign.”
The former Harlem state senator, who attended public schools in Hempstead, L.I., may even turn out to be a stronger advocate for a tuition tax break than his predecessor, says Tobman.
In drawing a distinction between Eliot Spitzer and Paterson, who is the state’s first black governor, Tobman said “The former [backed an education tax credit] as part of some political

calculus, grudgingly, while the latter does believe in his heart it’s the right thing. Add to that [the fact that] the school choice movement and communities of color have been close allies for years, and in fact the effort to secure help for tuition-paying families wouldn’t exist without the support of the African American, West Indian and Hispanic families, and he personifies that relationship.”
A spokesman for Paterson, Michael Whyland, said on Tuesday that the governor is “reviewing the issue.”
A tax break is not currently in the budget proposed by Spitzer, but Tobman said his coalition of Catholic, private and Jewish schools was discussing a tax credit with legislators. “Things are very fluid in Albany now, and like everyone else we are waiting to see what happens,” he said. Tobman said he was encouraged by the recent special election in upstate Jefferson and St. Lawrence counties, in which Democrat Darrel Aubertine was elected to the Assembly notwithstanding opposition by the statewide teachers union because of his support of education tax credits.
“Gov. Paterson has historically supported the full spectrum of school choice and has been an energetic supporter of public charter schools and sympathetic to the plight of tuition-paying parents,” Tobman said.
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has been a strong opponent of tuition credits, but in 2006 implemented a $300 credit for every child, something he said would be a greater benefit.