Among our recommendations was a proposal that the state provide computers to non-public school students. And in fact Assembly Speaker Silver and I introduced legislation to turn that recommendation into the law of the state. The Assembly passed it, but it has stalled in the State Senate. We are going to keep on trying, because it is the right thing to do. Another proposal was to have the state provide the resources for remedial education classes in the state-mandated subjects taught in private schools.
And then of course there is the issue of money. New York State spends $17.5 billion each year on education. Of that, less than $200 million – or about one percent – is devoted to non-public schools and students. That includes transportation aid, textbook and library resources and other costs that government would incur regardless of where these children attended school.
We can do more for them. And we will do more for them. While it is and will always remain the primary obligation of government to sustain its public schools, we must do more for both our public and private school children.
There has been a lot of attention paid the past few months to a proposal to offer lower-income parents of all schoolchildren – both in public and private schools – a $500 education tax credit for certain expenses they incur, including private school expenses.
As I’ve made clear on many occasions, I think education tax credits are a good idea, and I’d like to see them happen.
Religiously observant individuals have chosen a unique way of life, one that requires them to strictly adhere to their faith even as they make their way in the larger world. That is their end of the bargain.
My job is to make sure that they are not penalized for that choice, that they are not subject to discrimination of any kind – by government or those in the private sector – and that they are treated as full and equal partners in our democracy that is far better for their participation in it.