By Daniel Massey
Borough politicians railed against the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last Thursday that allows parents to use government-financed vouchers for religious and private schools, calling the ruling a distraction that will take focus away from the issue of improving public education.
But they said other than diverting attention from upgrading public schools, the decision should have little impact on education in New York because an amendment to the state Constitution clearly prohibits government aid for religious education.
Many said the more destructive decision was one rendered two days earlier by a state appellate court that overturned a landmark ruling requiring increased state funding of the city’s public schools.
“It was a bad week for public education,” said state Assemblywoman Barbara Clark (D-Queens Village), who is a member of the Assembly’s education committee.
“That’s two bad ones in two days,” said state Sen. Toby Stavisky (D-Whitestone), who is the ranking Democrat on the state Senate’s education committee. “I don’t think it will have a great impact because our state Constitution is restrictive, but it detracts from the real issue, which is are the kids learning?”
She said New York State’s Constitution, through a provision known as the Blaine Amendment, “clearly states that no money either direct or indirect can be used for nonpublic schools.”
State law also forbids city governments from spending money allocated for education purposes because only school districts are allowed to disburse funds. This provision led former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s corporation counsel to squelch his attempt to begin an experimental voucher program in the city.
The Supreme Court decision is expected to shift the debate on vouchers from the courts to the voting booths. The ruling means vouchers are constitutional but does not mean they are required, opening the door for political maneuvering.
“I have no doubt the movement will start,” Clark said. “They’ll try to find a way around the Constitution just like the Supreme Court did.”
James Cultrara, director for education of the New York State Catholic Conference, said in a statement the decision could serve as a springboard for voucher proponents across the state.
“New York’s governor and Legislature now have the green light to allow parents to send their children to schools that work,” he said. “Will they take advantage of this opportunity or continue to defend the interests of the government school bureaucracy?”
But City Councilman John Liu (D-Flushing), a member of the Council’s education committee, said the voucher decision would not be taken too seriously in council committee debates.
“It’s something we have talked about in the past and there’s no support in our committee for vouchers,” he said. “We have bigger fish to fry.”
He said last week’s reversal of the landmark school funding ruling, how the new school governance plan is going to be implemented, and building schools in Queens were all bigger issues.
“The primary mission needs to be fixing our public schools,” he said.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg deflected questions on vouchers during a meeting with community newspapers Friday morning and gave much the same response later in the day on his weekly WABC/770 radio program.
“I was hired to improve the public school system and that’s what I’m going to focus on,” he said in response to a question from host John Grambling. “And down the road, if the public wants to do something else, we’ll take a look at it. But I don’t want to get diverted from what I was elected to do and what I said I would accomplish.”
Reach reporter Daniel Massey by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 156.
