Urban
students rally for aid plan
Tax credit bills avoid loaded
'voucher' term
Tuesday, December 06, 2005 • BY JOHN MOONEY •
Star-Ledger Staff
A boisterous Statehouse rally yesterday
cheered a new legislative proposal to use public tax credits
for private school scholarships.
If only supporters knew what exactly to
call it.
"This is not a voucher bill," declared
one Democratic sponsor, wary of the term most linked to
right-wing and Republican causes.
Added state Sen. Joseph Doria of Hudson
County, another Democratic sponsor: "This is a scholarship
system."
The Rev. Reginald Jackson, the staunchest
supporter of all, tried to tread the semantic fine line.
"The dreaded voucher word," he said. "But welfare and food
stamps are vouchers, too. Sometimes vouchers are
necessary."
Label it what you will, the proposal's
political stakes were on display yesterday as about 400
people, most of them parochial school students, gathered in
the cold to support the proposed Urban Schools Scholarship
Act.
The proposal would create pilot programs
in four cities -- Newark, Orange, Trenton and Camden -- for
a total of 4,000 low-income schoolchildren to receive up to
$9,000 a year in tuition help to attend a private or public
school of their choice.
Distinct from traditional voucher plans
that use public funds directly, these programs would be
funded by donations from corporations, which in turn would
receive dollar-for-dollar tax credits from the state. The
first year would cost about $24 million, increasing to $120
million by the fifth year.
The bills are the first credible
voucher-like measures to be introduced in the state, and
supporters hope they could be acted on before the new
year.
But even with Democratic sponsors, the
chances of immediate action appeared slim yesterday, as
several prominent legislators and lobbyists said they did
not foresee the bills even being posted by the respective
committees in the upcoming lame-duck session.
State Sen. Shirley Turner (D-Mercer),
chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee, said she has
held the committee's last meeting of the year. Turner didn't
sound too supportive of the proposal, anyway, especially
pointing to the lost tax revenues. But she said it warranted
more time than the upcoming session afforded.
"This is something that deserves a lot of
study," Turner said in an interview. "I haven't even looked
at the bill."
Her stance drew some chiding comments at
yesterday's rally from Jackson, the leader of the state's
Black Ministers' Council and the most rousing speaker of the
event. He and others said opponents of the plan would face
the wrath of voters.
"She says it is too controversial,"
Jackson told the crowd. "But the Civil Rights Act of 1964
was controversial, and that got a hearing and was passed.
... It may take some time, but this bill, too, shall
pass."
The measures yesterday drew other
high-profile support, especially among religious leaders.
Leading a list of Lutheran, Jewish and Catholic clergy,
Newark Archbishop John Myers spoke briefly to the crowd and
afterward put the issue on nearly the same level as that of
his last Statehouse rally a year ago.
"The last time I was out here was a
pro-life rally," he said. "I think this is very important,
because the inner-city schools are suffering, both public
and private, and something has to be done about it. This is
a step in the right direction."
Catholic school students dominated the
crowd, many of them in school uniforms and bused in for the
hourlong event. Several students from the Trenton Catholic
Academies said they sat through an assembly at their school
beforehand to brief them on the proposal.
"The money would make a big difference,"
said Julian Fitzgerald, a junior. "We're in the schools now,
but it doesn't mean we have enough to stay."
Also in the crowd were a handful of New
Jersey Education Association officers and lobbyists,
representing the formidable teachers union poised to fight
off the plan, which it says is a clear threat to public
schools.
One questioned why the students weren't
in school, as he circulated a NJEA release decrying the plan
as "irresponsible" and "out of touch with public
opinion."
Doing its part in the war of words, the
NJEA called the measure a "voucher/tax credit"
plan.
John Mooney covers education. He may be reached at
jmooney@starledger.com, or (973) 392-1548.
© 2005 The Star-Ledger. Used by NJ.com with
permission.
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