Curious Advocacy For Tuition Tax Deductions,Editorial Board

The Jewish Press has for years closely followed and reported on efforts to advance legislative interests of the Jewish community. In particular, we have been in the forefront of efforts to secure equity for non-public school education in terms of building public support.

In the course of that involvement we've discerned certain unofficial rules of engagement at play, particularly when such efforts have been crowned with success: Make your case on the merits, be internally consistent in your arguments, try to attract opponents in the effort and, above all, see to it that credit for the new legislation can plausibly be claimed by those who are key to the ultimate decision-making (while taking pains to avoid any suggestion that they are opposed to the interests being promoted), and, finally, be entirely candid about the facts.

So we were astonished by a letter sent to New York Governor Eliot Spitzer last week (and promptly leaked to the press), signed by self-described "leaders of communities of faith," urging the governor to see to it that his campaign promise to provide a tuition tax deduction to parochial school parents be included in the state's new budget. Judging from the text, all the canons of advocacy seem to have been violated.

In pertinent part, here is the text of the letter, signed by Cardinal Egan and other Catholic officials, religious leaders of non-Catholic denominations and Rabbi Dale Polakoff of the Rabbinical Council of America, Rabbi Dr. Elie Abadie of the Sephardic Community Federation, Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb of the Orthodox Union, Rabbi Pesach Lerner of the National Council of Young Israel and Rabbi Kenneth Brander of Yeshiva University's Center for the Jewish Future:

Dear Governor Spitzer:

As leaders of communities of faith representing, collectively, millions of New Yorkers in cities, villages and towns in every corner of our great state, we write with one simple message today. We pay that you see to it that the tuition tax deduction you proposed is, in fact, included in the final state budget.

We are shocked that anyone could, or would, oppose this modest program aimed at providing real, tangible relief to struggling families. All New Yorkers should rally around this. That the public school teachers' lobbyists and the legislators beholden to them are working to derail this program forces us to act - and to speak up.

Hearing, as we do each day, of families that struggle to make ends meet, we know that average New Yorkers will truly benefit from this proposal. We urge you to stand firmly with the families of New York State. Passage of this program will help open up educational opportunities for New Yorkers in need....

We trust you will stand with us and the families of a half million school children.

The internal contradictions are stunning. There is a call for Gov. Spitzer to resist the importunings of special interest groups, yet the signers note that they represent "millions of New Yorkers" and "the families of a half million school children" who have an interest in tuition tax deductions that is not shared by other New Yorkers.

Second, the signers express "shock" that anyone could oppose "this modest program," which, they say, is "aimed at providing real, tangible relief to struggling families"; "families that struggle to make ends meet"; "average New Yorkers [that] will truly benefit from this proposal," and which will "help open up educational opportunities for New Yorkers in need."

How can they have it both ways? How can a "modest program" be so critical? Moreover, do they think the governor and members of the legislature are not aware that the tax deduction will average a benefit of perhaps $30-$40 per child? Can this sum conceivably relate to "open[ing] up educational opportunities for New Yorkers in need?"

In addition, where is the wisdom in the letter's signers demonizing members of the legislature by saying Mr. Spitzer should overcome those legislators who are "beholden" to lobbyists with an implied nefarious agenda? Is this calculated to enlist those legislators in the effort - or rather to proclaim that if they go along they will be perceived as vanquished foes?

And do the signers think the governor and the legislators are somehow not aware that the so-called foes of non-public education in the legislature are promoting substantial aid to the non-public school community through a multi-million dollar expansion of the mandated services law which will result in almost $40 million going directly to the schools? And that this program will avoid the serious probability that non-public schools will raise the tuition of parents consistent with the tax break they get?

The dynamics of governmental budget making are complex. Just because some are committed to tuition tax deductions as a way to vindicate the valid goal of equity for non-public school parents does not mean other approaches are wrong and their champions the enemy. Most important, advocates for this important cause should take care not to allow themselves to be unwittingly conscripted into pursuit of a political agenda antithetical to our true friends in government.

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Curious Advocacy For Tuition Tax Deductions , Editorial Board