20. Lemon v. Kurtzman. 21. It is impossible to close our eyes to the fact that the author of the Niquist decision comes from the Bible Belt--a judge who on other issues rather consistently has come down on the side of private initiative and in opposition to governmental action when proper alternatives were available. Anti-Catholic sentiment almost certainly is not the dominant factor in the opposition to educational tax credits for nonpublic schools. But it may at times be just strong enough to tip the scales on some crucial votes. 22. Zorach v. Clauson. A New LoW 23. Albert Shanker, "Is the Opposition Anti-Catholic? 24. Ibid. 25. D. L. Judd, Saturday Review, February 20, 1971. 26. Pierce v. Society of Sisters, 268 U.S. 510 (1925). 27. A self-appointed "semi-retired participant in the liberal consensus," Chester Finn, long-time education assistant to Senator Patrick Moynihan, recently made "preoccupation with questions of educational equity and equality and a pronounced lack of interest in the issues of quality" the subject of a brilliant article and incisive critique; Chester E. Finn, Jr., "The Future of Education's Liberal Concensus," Change, September 1980, p. 26. 28. "Tuition Tax Credits," Washington Post, August 7, 1978. 29. Internal Revenue Code, sec. 501(c)3. 30. Dan Throop Smith, "General Policy Problems of Tax Differentials," in Income Tax Differentials, symposium by the 31. Dan Throop Smith, Federal Tax Reform (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1961), p. 90. 32. C. Harry Kahn, "Personal Deductions in the Income Tax," Tax Revision Compendium, Committee on Ways and Means, U.S. House of Representatives, 1959, pp. 392ff. 33. Daniel P. Moynihan, National Review, February 6, 1981, p. 116. In July of 1980 the Thomas J. White Center on Law and Government of the University of Notre Dame sponsored in Washington, D.C. a symposium for the purpose of exploring extensively some of the major problems facing nonpublic elementary and secondary education. My colleague, Professor Edward McGlynn Gaffney, has edited a volume of the essays generated for this conference, soon to be published by the University of Notre Dame Press under the title Private Schools and the Public Good: Policy Alternatives for the Eighties. All of the essays in this volume merit the serious reflection of Members of the Congress deliberating on important proposals that will affect the quality of nonpublic education in this decade. I single out four of these essays because of their special salience and relevance to the topic of the current hearings on the policy wisdom and constitutionality of the tuition tax credit. They are chapter one, "Catholic High Schools and Minority Students," by Fr. Andrew M. Greeley; chapter three, "How Federal Policies Discourage the Racial and Economic Integration of Private Schools," by Dr. Thomas VitulloMartin; chapter eleven, "Federal Scholarships for Private Elementary and Secondary Education," by Professors Stephen D. Sugarman and John E. Coons, and chapter fourteen, "On Making It Look Easy by Doing It Wrong: A Critical View of the Justice Department Position Papers, by Professor Antonin Scalia. My experiences as Governor of Ohio in the early Seventies have convinced me that if there is to be any hope of finding a solution to the educational problems that we face in the Eighties, we must resist the urge to divide the educational universe into separate and rival domains and duchies: public schools against private; academic programs versus vocational training; suburbs against central cities; underprivileged children versus the affluent; minorities against majority. That tendency seemed to me then, and seems to me now, to accomplish nothing in terms of advancing the interests of one sector of education in relation to others, but rather to provide ammunition to those who were seeking any and every rationale for curtailing support to education as a whole. Participants in this kind of fratricidal strife were-and are--thus inflicting serious damage on the very enterprise they profess to defend and serve. ་་ Dole I trust that you will find the enclosed essays of value to your colleagues in the Senate and respectfully request that you include them in the record of your hearings on the tuition tax credit proposal. Sincerely, Joh J. Fills John J. Gilligan, Director JJG:nw enclosure: fove copies of materials for inclusion in hearing record |