New York – Two days after the New York State budget was finally hammered out in Albany, Senator Simcha Felder had strong words for those who put the kibosh on the Education Initiative Tax Credit bill, which would have provided financial relief through tax credits to both public and non-public school parents.
Subscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
“We parents are suffering so much,” Felder told VIN News. “They literally took the non public school parents and said ‘Drop dead. We don’t care about you at all.’”
Advocates throughout the state have pointed the finger of blame squarely at Governor Andrew Cuomo and at Speaker Sheldon Silver for killing the measure, known as the Golden-Felder Bill, during Friday’s budget negotiations.
As previously reported on VIN News, the bill, which was the brainchild of the New York State Catholic School Conference, would have created foundations that would have benefited all schoolchildren in the state, no matter what type of school they attended.
Felder’s blistering attacked included those who touted the 2014 budget as a boon to yeshiva parents.
“Do not believe any individual or organization that tries to convince you that we did well on this budget,” said Felder. “That is a lie. At the end of the day, we deserve the respect and consideration to be able get both tuition scholarships and programs that we need. We should not accept any crumbs that Albany offers to pacify us. Albany should be beholden to its tuition paying parents, not the unions and political power brokers.”
The new budget did contain at least one bright spot for Felder: the passage of his transportation bill which would provide permanent funding for private school students to receive the same bussing benefits as their public school counterparts, with the maximum distance for bus stops reduced from 1400 to 600 feet.
“That means that no one should have a bus stop that is further away than their own corner,” said Felder. “For the coming school year, every parent in New York City whose child would be eligible for transportation in public schools will be eligible to have their children bussed to school at no cost.”
Despite his extreme disappointment, Felder acknowledged one bright spot in the fight to pass the Education Incentive Tax Credit bill.
“The greatest accomplishment in my mind was the act of participation of thousands and thousands of parents by calling and emailing the speaker and the governor in order to get the help they deserve in these dire economic times.”
Felder vowed to continue fighting to provide financial relief for private school parents.
“We are tired of letting them throw us some crumbs and expecting us to be satisfied,” warned Felder. “We get this game and we will not be quiet anymore.”
The education tax credit bill is of dubious constitutionality. We need a full scale attempt to repeal the state’s Blaine Amendment.
And even if we can eliminate the Blaine Amendment we also need to restructure local government to reduce the nearly confiscatory property taxes and that means massive school district consolidations. Otherwise no voters will ever approve any school taxes for private schools.
Let’s all send to public school will see how fast they respond
Private schools would have only pocketed the money anyhow, so this is a good think for us. The people of Rockland County protested loudly and their voices were heard. I believe due to the negative publicite chillul hashem from the one school board, the bill didn’t pass.
Misleading response. Telling someone you won’t help a school with public funds is not the same as saying drop dead. Sorry, but any thinking person does not buy into this sensational reaction. Cuomo is saying he doesn’t care about private schools . They are your choice.
Simcha- You are the only elected official who is ready to say it as it is.
That is why I am proud that I voted for you.
Simcha Felder – for someone who taught at Touro College you seem to be forgetting things from elementary accounting classes. Total debits must equal total credits. It’s very nice that the Catholic and Jewish schools thought it would be a great idea for their parent body to get tax credits (which would probably be recaptured through the higher tuitions that could now be afforded), but the lost tax revenue was not something that could be offest without one of three techniques not fiscally or politically viable – raising taxes, cutting someone else’s programs, or borrowing more money. It’s about time that we realized that there is no free lunch, and we shouldn’t count on the government to increase funding for religious schools – especially when the UFT packs a great deal in political clout in various state legislatures. We will have to rely on our own resources, and ask large Jewish foundations to be less politically correct and realign their funding to unserer as opposed to the victims of typhoons in Asia, in order to keep yeshiva educations within the reach of everyone in the community.
Shelly silver himself , told the heads of our yeshivas that the reason he won’t pass this bill is simply because he knows full well that the parents will not benefit from this . All the yeshivas will do, is raise tuition for each and every one of us. The same way they owould never even think of giving a break for the UPK. IT IS THE YESHIVAS FAULT!!!!
I agree with comment #2 . If we all walked over to our local public schools, and enrolled our students like they did in Satmar, you will see how fast they give us what we deserve. I believe we need to start a grass roots movement to get this problem under control. We are drowning in tuition payments, and we get an inequitable share of the government distributions for schooling.
Thanks Simcha for fighting so hard for your community! Though our politicians and our community gotta do abit more on working together.
No taxation without representation.
Shelly silver himself , told the heads of our yeshivas that the reason he won’t pass this bill is simply because he knows full well that the parents will not benefit from this . All the yeshivas will do, is raise tuition for each and every one of us. The same way they owould never even think of giving a break for the UPK. IT IS THE YESHIVAS FAULT!!!!
The concept of raising tuition by our schools is 100% true. I think that every city, such as Boro Park should create a board that will do the oversight in combining all schools under one umbrella to make sure that schools don’t raise prices, and keep them from pocketing money.
Only then, will the government do something about it.
Finally a politician that is ready to put community before his career and speaks the truth. Simcha you are the man
glad that you represent us!!!!
This is what happens when one Jews all vote for the same party. Democrats are beholden to teacher’s unions and are always going to do their bidding.
Orthodox Jews and Catholics should be demanding public support for private schoools on all fronts; vouchers, tax deductions, services, use of public school facilities. The laws are changing all over the country as political leader are acknowleging that public schools are failing, and the courts are going along. Knee jerk reactions about how the constitution prohibits all of these things are not only mistaken, they are outdated by the facts. Parents are now allowed to deduct for college tuition, religious colleges are able to get public money, transportation for non-public students is not only permitted, it is mandated.
Doesn’t the dept of Ed have money from the state lottery tickets? I thought that’s where the tickets sales from mega and powerball lotteries went.
pocketing money…are you guyz nuts????
My father is a Rebbi in Yeshiva and works sooooo hard and sooo many hours and do you know how many times he is told by the Yeshiva secretary that there will be no check this pay period. So somehow you are supposed to pay your bills out of thin air.
Get real-Yeshiva salaries are no where near public school salaries and lets not discuss the paid lunch and prep that Public Shool teachers get.
If the government gives money, you are darn right that they will raise tuition. So that Rabbeim get paid.
#18 i sent mine now what will you do? id love to see you pull your kid out of cheder on a dare.
Even if it passes, it will not help. Yeshivas would lose autonomy if they got any taxpayer benefits. That means they wouldn’t be able to control the religious behavior of the students outside of school. Bais Yaacovs would not be able to kick girls out for talking to boys, wearing untznius clothes, etc.
“For the coming school year, every parent in New York City whose child would be eligible for transportation in public schools will be eligible to have their children bussed to school at no cost.”
Baloney, this is the oldest biggest lie, we had transportation services decreased this past year when Yeshiva’s purged “varsity” bus services. You now have to live a mile away to get transpiration and it’s not just a stop that a child who lives one block over can join it, it’s the Yeshiva’s stop for that particular child, the rest need to pay 800 a child.
More funding for the schools = higher tuition for the rest of the congregates.