Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 7-March 2,1978
WASHINGTON (NC) -- Nonpublic
school students are shortchanged in
both the quantity and quality of their
participation in a federal education
program designed to help low-income
students with academic problems,
according to a government study
scheduled for release at the end of
March.
About 75 percent of the students in
U.S. nonpublic schools attend Catholic
elementary and secondary schools.
The program in question is Title I of
the Elementary and Secondary
Education Act, a compensatory
education program in which local school
districts administer federal funds aimed
at both public and nonpublic school
students.
The study was conducted by Thomas
Vitullo-Martin, a political scientist from
New York, under a grant from the
National Institute of Education.
Vitullo-Martin discussed his findings in a
telephone interview with NC News
Service.
An interim report published earlier
by Vitullo-Martin found that only 43
percent of the U.S. local school districts
which include nonpublic schools
provided any Title I services to
nonpublic school students.
Participating nonpublic school
students receive an average of one
Congress
WASHINGTON (NC) - With concern
about educational costs high, Congress
finds itself walking a political tightrope
between tuition tax credit bills and
President Carter’s proposal to expand
and increase existing federal aid to
higher education.
The tax credit bills vary in amount
and scope. Some would allow a $250
credit, others a $500 credit; some apply
only to college tuition, others to tuition
paid to virtually all accredited public
and nonpublic schools.
Despite their differences, they all
have one thing in common: the
Administration believes that at a cost of
between $1.2 and $4.7 billion they are
too expensive.
As an alternative, the president has
proposed a nearly $1.5 billon increase in
loan, grant and work study programs for
college students and better policing of
federal education programs for
elementary and secondary school
students.
Congress has not yet decided which
method to adopt, but judging from the
wide, bi-partisan support, parents and
students can expect some financial help
in meeting skyrocketing college tuition
costs by next year. In the House alone,
more than 100 tuition tax relief bills
have been introduced this session.
House and Senate committees held
hearings on the Administration package
Feb. 9, the day after it was announced.
The House Ways and Means committee
finished five days of hearings on five
tuition tax measures Feb. 21. The
Senate finance subcommittee held
similar hearings last month.
Whether Congress will extend a
helping hand to the parents of
nonpublic school children is less certain,
however. The Administration proposal
is limited to college tuition and some
hour’s service each week, the study said,
while participating public school
students receive an average of 5.5 hours
of service a week.
Vitullo-Martin said his initial survey
indicated that only 116,000 nonpublic
school students participated in the
program. But he said this figure was
probably too low. He said he estimated
that 245,000 nonpublic school students
are eligible for Title I aid.
The U.S. Office of Education, which
administers the Title I program, says
reports from the states show that
190,000 nonpublic school students, or
about six percent of the total,
participated in fiscal year 1976,
Vitullo-Martin said.
But this higher figure does not reflect
the quality of the participation, he said.
A nonpublic school student may receive
only reading materials and be counted
as a participant, Vitullo-Martin said.
Vitullo-Martin said nonpublic schools
faced serious Title I problems in
Missouri, Virginia, Oklahoma and
Wisconsin, which have state
constitutional problems concerning
assistance to nonpublic schools, as well
as in Boston, Denver, rural areas in
California and on Indian reservations. In
general, he said, the problems are more
severe in rural areas than in larger cities.
Vitullo-Martin said the whole
On Political
tuition tax credit bills apply only to
higher education.
Adding to the uncertainty are
opponents of aid to nonpublic
education. They predict that a tax break
for nonpublic school parents will erode
the principle of church-state separation
and weaken political and financial
support for public education. »
Even those who support an
across-the-board tax credit have
expressed a willingness to jettison
elementary and secondary schools
should they threaten to capsize a tax
break for college tuition.
During the second day of hearings in
the House, Rep. William Steiger (R-Wis.)
asked Rep. Albert Quie (R-Minn.) if he
would support a bill that applied only
to colleges. Quie, ranking minority
member of the education and labor
committee, is a co-sponsor of a bill
sponsored by Rep. Bill Frenzel
(R-Minn.) that would allow a tax credit
of up to $500 for tuition paid to all
schools, public and nonpublic.
“If Congress finds it can only do it
for higher education, I would support
that now,” Quie said. “I’d like to get
my foot in the door.”
The door may close, however, if
Congress allows a tax break only for
college tuition. Msgr. Edward Spiers,
executive director of Citizens for
Educational Freedom, acknowledged
the possibility, adding, “If they don’t
include elementary and secondary
schools, I think we can stop federal aid”
to colleges, he said.
Msgr. Spiers is confident that the
Ways and Means Committee will report
a bill to his liking and that the House
will pass it. He is not worried about the
Senate where support for a bill identical
to the Frenzel proposal is strong.
During both the House and Senate
program is underfunded - Congress has
appropriated only enough money for
one-t'nird of all eligible students.
Nineteen percent of the nation’s
public school students participate in the
program, he said.
“For the most part, I haven’t found
extreme anti-Catholic or any other
forms of antagonism like that, at least at
the local level,” Vitullo-Martin said.
“You’re asking the public school
system to serve nonpublic school
children and you’re asking them to go
out and find the children. When they
find the children, they basically have
fewer dollars to spend on their own
children because their dollar amount
does not change.”
Vitullo-Martin told NC News that
Congress, the Office of Education, the
local districts and states and the
nonpublic schools themselves all share
part of the blame for the
disproportionately low participation by
nonpublic school students.
First, he said, there are problems at
the local level. Few school districts
actively identify nonpublic school
students by surveys or testing and some
that do, use different standards for
nonpublic school students than for
public school students.
Congress is partly to blame,
Vitullo-Martin said, because it has never
Tightrope
hearings, the strongest opposition to
tuition tax credits came from the
Administration and the strongest
support from representatives of religious
groups, particularly in the Catholic
Church. About 75 percent of the
nation’s private elementary and
secondary schools have Church
affiliation.
Secretary of Health, Education and
Welfare Joseph Califano, Jr. told the
House committee that tuition tax
credits do not target aid to those that
need it, are insensitive to family need,
do not solve cash flow problems
resulting from high tuition, drain federal
money from other aid programs, are
administratively burdensome, and
fragment education policy among
different congressional committees and
federal agencies.
Private school representatives said tax
credits would preserve freedom of
choice in education. “It has now
become crystal clear that this is not a
Catholic issue, nor for that matter a
Jewish issue, nor a Lutheran issue,” said
Rabbi Morris Sherer, president of the
orthodox Jewish movement, Agudath
Israel America. “The public now senses
that it is an American issue, and that at
stake is the basic principle of freedom
of choice in education.”
Other witnesses complained that the
freedom of choice, especially for
minorities, is jeopardized by the
“double burden” carried by the parents
of nearly 8 million nonpublic school
students who pay tuition in addition to
property taxes used to support public
schools they don’t use. “Critics of aid to
nonpublic schools maintain that
Americans do in fact have freedom of
choice in education,” said Vincent
Haley, president of the Philadelphia
archdiocesan board of education.
“However, if parents’ exercise of that
choice must be purchased at a
prohibitive cost, while they still pay for
the unused choice, it is not freedom.”
specifically asked for reviews of
participation by nonpublic school
students and has never given the Office
of Education sufficiently explicit
standards for administering the
program.
The only specific tool Congress gave
the Office of Education is the “bypass,”
a provision that allows the office to
provide services to nonpublic school
students through a third party instead
of the local public school district.
The bypass is used when a state has a
constitutional problem or when there is
WASHINGTON (NC) - The National
Conference of Catholic Bishops’
Administrative Committee said the
Church is committed to aiding refugees,
particularly those from Southeast Asia,
and urged additional measures on their
behalf from the U.S. government and
business interests.
In a statement adopted Feb. 16, the
committee noted that many refugees
fleeing the communist regimes in
Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia are dying
before they reach safety. Most
governments are reluctant to take in the
refugees, and even ships on the high seas
are ignoring boatloads of refugees, the
committee statement said.
The committee pledged that the
Catholic Church would aid “refugees of
any nation, regardless of religion and
political ideology.” To date, Catholic
agencies have helped resettle about half
of the 150,000 Southeast Asians who
fled their countries when the
communists overran the area almost
three years ago.
“We urge the President and Congress
to respond in a more forceful and
“significant failure” to deliver services
to nonpublic school students.
The Office of Education is also partly
responsible for the problems,
Vitullo-Martin said. “Basically,” he said,
“you can view Title I as a contract
between the Office of Education and
the local school districts to provide
service to children that the federal
government identifies as needing
services.
“What’s happening is that a portion
of the children that are supposed to be
humane manner to the anguished cries
of the men, women and children who,
seeking a new life of freedom, are
fleeing Southeast Asia by land and in
small boats,” the statement said.
The committee noted that nearby
Thailand cannot accommodate the
approximately 5,000 people who reach
its borders each month.
“There is no way of knowing how
many refugees have been turned back at
the borders by local Thai officials. The
United States press reported some
months ago that a group of 29 had been
returned to Cambodia and immediately
executed.”
In addition, merchant vessels are
reluctant to aid those who flee by small
boats. “Past experience has taught the
masters of these vessels that to do so
can involve them and their shipping
companies in many complications.
Some countries, learning that refugees
are aboard a vessel, will not permit even
the crew to disembark. No landing
rights are given to refugees, and the ship
must keep them on board while hoping
to reach a port that will grant
served aren’t being served and the
contractor (the Office of Education) is
not calling in the contracts.”
Finally, Vitullo-Martin said,
nonpublic school officials obtain more
aid for their students when they hire
someone to act as liaison with the
public school district. Nonpublic
schools, including parochial schools, do
well with Title I funds in New York,
Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Chicago and
Washington, D.C., because they have
such liaisons, he said.
temporary asylum. In some instances,
ships have sailed nearly around the
world, dropping off refugees in South
Africa, Kuwait, Italy and other places.”
The committee statement said
present measures to provide for refugees
are stopgaps. “Some type of established
admission procedure is needed to avoid
unimaginable disaster,” it continued.
While calling on the government to
act, the committee said it is aware “of
the responsibility of the business world
and of the Church itself in this matter.”
Shipping interests in particular “must
not abandon these men, women and
children to the perils of the sea. The
ancient tradition of rendering aid to the
occupants of boats and ships in distress
on the high seas must be continued by
American ship masters and crews,” the
statement said.
“As for the Church, we renew our
commitment to aid the refugees of any
nation, regardless of religion and
political ideology,” the committee said,
and called on dioceses, parishes and
individual Catholics to expand their
efforts on behalf of the refugees.
PHILHARMONIC GOES TO CHURCH - Ten pews
in St. Augustine’s Church in Kansas City, Mo., had to
be removed to accommodate the full Kansas City
Philharmonic Orchestra which performed a free
concert for 450 parishioners and people of the inner
city neighborhood. Marc Gottlieb, assistant orchestra
director, conducted Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and
Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite, in the program which was
sponsored by the Kansas City Parks and Recreation
Department. (NC Photo by Father Michael Rice)
Seek Help For Indochinese Refugees
CPA STUDY SHOWS:
Catholic Press Readers More In Line With Teachings
NEW YORK (NC) - Those who read the Catholic press are in closer alignment with
the Church’s teachings than those who don’t, a new national study by the Gallup poll
shows.
The study found that was the case in regard to a number of key subjects,
including abortion, ecumenism, birth control, divorce, and changes brought about by
Vatican Council II.
For the study, Gallup contacted 1,405 Catholic households nationally and included
both readers and nonreaders of the Catholic press, along with persons who attend
church frequently, who attend church occasionally, and who never attend church.
The study was made public by the Catholic Press Association, for which it was done
by Gallup with a grant from Lilly Endowment, Inc.
In general, those who read the Catholic press rate their religious beliefs as being
more important to them than those who don’t read the Catholic press, the study
found.
Nationally, 54 percent of all Catholics questioned said they consider their religious
beliefs to be “very important” to them. But the figure increased to as high as 78
percent among even moderate readers of diocesan newspapers and up to 75 percent
among heavy readers of national Catholic publications.
Almost two-thirds of Catholics who regard their religious beliefs as “very
important” had read their diocesan newspapers in the 12-month period covered by the
study.
Readers of diocesan newspapers are clearly more supportive of the Church’s
position on abortion than those who aren’t Catholic press readers, the study showed.
Nationally, 47 percent of all Catholics questioned said there should be no change in
the Church’s abortion position. But 62 percent of heavy readers of the Catholic press
held that position.
On the other hand, while 44 percent of those interviewed said the Church should
relax its abortion stand, only 33 percent of those who are heavy readers of Catholic
newspapers took that position.
The study also showed that Catholic press readers are more ecumenically minded
and more supportive of changes in the Church after Vatican Council II.
On birth control, 73 percent of those interviewed favored some form of artificial
means. Among heavy readers of Catholic papers, fewer - 64 percent - favored it.
On divorce, 69 percent of those interviewed nationally said divorced persons should
be allowed to remarry in the Church. But among heavy readers of the Catholic press,
59 percent took that stand
About half of those interviewed - 48 percent - were familiar with and had read the
newspaper for their diocese in the 12-month period tested. Among those with a college
education, the figure rose to 54 percent.
Readership in general tended to be highest among persons with a college
background, women, Midwestern residents, older persons, those who are married and
those who place considerable importance on their religious beliefs and are active in
Church affairs.
Readers listed the following subjects as being those they would most like to see
covered in their diocesan newspaper: teenage and youth problems, marriage and
divorce, drugs and alcohol, family, education and schools, abortion, right to life, birth
control, health and medicine, dating and sex. All those subjects were favored by at
least 35 percent of diocesan press readers, with teenage and youth problems drawing
the highest figure, 57 percent.
One of the key problems facing the Catholic press is a decline in young readers, the
study showed. Despite their higher level of education, far fewer young adults - 33
percent - than older adults - 64 percent - could name their diocesan newspaper and
had read it in the past 12 months.
Almost all of those interviewed said they saw problems in the Church. Only 5
percent said they saw no problems. According to the study, Catholics are most
concerned about retaining membership in the Church, division within the Church and
the declining number of priests and nuns.
In general, readers of the diocesan press said they liked their newspapers, with 75
percent saying they found them attractive and easy to read, and 64 percent saying the
newspapers helped them to understand Catholicism.
The chief criticism was the diocesan press “sticks too closely to official Church
positions,” a view expressed by 64 percent, and that the papers don’t deal enough with
controversial subject matter, a view expressed by 61 percent.
The study indicated that Catholics may be getting more of their current news about
Catholic affairs from secular sources than from the Catholic press.
All of those surveyed were asked the following question: “From which of the
sources listed do you get your information about Catholic affairs - both religious
practices and beliefs as well as organizational matters?”
The source which rated highest on the list was religious books, at 56 percent,
followed by movies and plays at 48 percent. Then came the daily newspaper, at 31
percent, followed by the diocesan newspaper, at 29 percent, and national Catholic
newspapers, at 21 percent. Other sources listed were conversations with friends, family
or neighbors, 15 percent; national Catholic magazines, 14 percent; services in Church,
13 percent; secular radio and television programs, 8 percent; secular magazines, 6
percent. Many of those interviewed indicated more than one source.
Compared to Protestants, Catholics have grown dramatically in status in the past 10
years, the study showed. From 1966 to 1976 the proportion of Catholics who
graduated from college grew from 17 percent to 28 percent. That compares to a
Protestant figure of 27 percent in 1976. Also, Catholics are assuming more positions of
leadership. In the past 10 years Catholics in professions and in business climbed from
23 percent to 26 percent. The Protestant Figure is now 22 percent.
The Catholic population has grown in 10 years from 25 percent of the U.S. to 28
percent. Among Catholics, three in 10 are young, that is, 18 to 29, compared to two in
10 among Protestants.
The study also said that Catholics feel better about themselves, with the proportion
of those who rate their faith “highly favorable” standing at 69 percent, up from 62
percent in 1975.
Also, Mass attendance is holding steady, the study showed, with an upturn in Mass
attendance among the young. In 1975 the figure was 39 percent. Now it is 43 percent.
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