Submitted by George N Spitz, Jan 29, 2008 03:16

Charter schools already in existence in New York State are being granted approximately $8,500 annually per pupil, which is deducted from the budget of the local public school district. Religious Schools should be offered the same $8,500. This would be far more equitable than tax credits

Opponents of any form of aid to religious schools cite the "Blaine" Amendment, a relic of a wave of late 19^th Century anti-Catholic bigotry proscribing government assistance to religious schools. "Blaine" was named after James G. Blaine, former Speaker of the US House of Representatives and defeated Republican candidate for President in 1884. After a narrow failure of "Blaine" to pass the US Congress, an amendment with somewhat similar language was adopted at New York State's 1894 Constitutional Convention. Orthodox Jewish, Lutheran and Greek Orthodox Schools were not a factor in that era. Yet Jewish, Lutheran and Greek parents wishing to have their children educated in religious schools suffer from circa 1890 bigotry just as Catholic parents do.

The Blaine Amendment should be repealed primarily because of the hate filled manner in which it was adopted. But United States Supreme Court of the United States decisions dating back to 1925 when a Ku Klux Klan sponsor Oregon law outlawing nonpublic schools, which would have included charter as well as religious schools, was declared unconstitutional should subsume the Blaine Amendment, provided none of the government aid is used for teaching religion. Therefore, deducting from any state grant the cost of such religious instruction as a school offers its pupils will suffice to bring Catholic, Lutheran, Orthodox and Jewish schools operating under New York State's Charter School Law within the framework of the U.S. Constitution. It is important that government funding for non-public schools is distributed on a non-discriminatory basis. Both should demand prompt repeal of New York State's Blaine Amendment. There is no place for bigotry in an official document such as the New York State Constitution even though having been subsumed by US Supreme Court decisions, the Blaine Amendment has now is without standing in law.

Through the years "Blaine" similar to most forms of religious and racial bigotry has caused collateral damage, notably hindering efforts to reform New York State politics.

For example, in 1967, a New York State Constitutional Convention submitted to voters a significantly improved constitution. Opponents waged a successful campaign to retain the existing constitution. They cited in distorted fashion the document's inclusion of repeal of the Blaine Amendment. In actuality, the new constitution substituted the language of the Federal Constitution mandating separation of church and state for Blaine, simultaneously providing citizens with the right to sue if the amended language was violated. Opponents included many New York City liberals, such as then Mayor John Lindsay, City Councilman Edward Koch, at the time considered a diehard leftist, the Liberal Party, Citizens Union and the New York Times. In 1997, a similar argument was used by new generation of liberals including Mark Green, Ruth Messinger, Norman Siegel, the Lexington Democratic Club coalescing with The Conservative Party, Shelly Silver, Joe Bruno, the State AFL-CIO and ironically the Christian Coalition to defeat holding a Constitutional Convention

Also going down to defeat in 1967 with the proposal to repeal Blaine and substitute language of the U.S. Constitution were sections of considerable value to good government in general and New York City in particular. As examples, consider the following:

·· Article I included adding woman and the disabled to those guaranteed equal protection of the laws. (In 40 years since, the legislature has refused submit as separate amendments this article and one preventing hate crimes to the voters)

· Article III prohibited gerrymandering and specified that districts must be compact and contiguous and apportioned by nonpartisan commission... (Understandably, the dysfunctional Legislature has shown little interest in this article)

· Article IX required that in any law apportioning state aid to school districts, the basis of computing the number of pupils shall be the registration thereof. (City Councilman Robert Jackson who initiated a lawsuit to remedy the present unfair apportionment of school aid to the city was unaware that a previous generation of liberals opposed a constitution containing Article IX out of largely anti-Catholic bigotry.)

·· In addition, New York City was to be relieved by the state under the new constitution of all expense for welfare and court costs. Koch and Lindsay assured voters that this proviso would be adopted as separate amendments within a few years. They were disappointed.

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