March 13, 2007

Cardinal Egan calls Spitzer tuition aid just `a beginning'

"If a parent neglects a child, the government basically takes that child away from the parent," Egan told reporters. "If the schools neglect our children, the parents have nothing to do unless they have a great deal of money. This is all wrong."

Spitzer has proposed a $1,000 tax deduction to offset the cost of private and parochial school tuition as a break for parents who also pay taxes toward _ but don't use _ public schools.

Egan said the measure only means $50 to $80 in savings for most parents paying tuition for the 500,000 students statewide attending private or parochial schools.

"It is not a whole lot," said Egan, whose mother was a public school teacher. "But it is at least a statement of a beginning toward what is clearly justice."

He said families that send children to private schools save taxpayers $7.5 billion a year because they reduce enrollment at public schools. He also said that while the state's four-year graduation rate for public high schools is 64 percent (44 percent in New York City), Catholic high schools in New York City have a "virtually 100 percent" graduation rate. He also said 98 percent of graduates in high-poverty, inner city Catholic high schools go to college.

Egan singled out the public school teacher unions as the most powerful opponent of the measure.

"Who's afraid of competition? Who's afraid of comparison?" he asked.

The New York State United Teachers has begun a $125,000 advertising campaign against the tax break and against charter schools. The ads say tax breaks shouldn't support private schools because public schools must be the state's priority.

Spitzer's budget proposal, soon to be negotiated with legislative leaders, calls for a record $1.4 billion increase in public school aid. That aid is now about $17 billion.

Spitzer credited the church with leading previous efforts to raise the minimum wage and improve social services, but wouldn't discuss details of his closed-door meeting with Egan and bishops.

But Egan opposed Spitzer's $100 million initiative to accelerate stem cell research in part to bring more jobs in the growing field to New York. Egan said he opposes it because it would use embryos, rather than fluids which can be used for at least some of the research into cures for diseases.

"Our current proposal allows for research that brings hope to countless people facing devastating illnesses," said Maritere Arce, spokeswoman for Lt. Gov. David Paterson who is leading the Spitzer administration's stem cell initiative. "While federally funded projects allow research on adult stem cells, these cells have a more limited potential than embryonic ones."

Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno also said he would support stem cell research, but not if it required embryos.

"You're talking about deliberately creating human lives to kill them," said Edward Mechmann of the archdiocese.

"We are 100 percent in favor of any medical research that doesn't jeopardize the life of a human being," Egan said.