Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 3—The Georgia Bulletin, November 20,1980
*♦
Tuition Tax
Credits Ahead?
BY JIM LACKEY
WASHINGTON (NC) -- Reaction in the Catholic
community to Ronald Reagan’s election as president has
made much of Reagan’s avowed support of tuition tax
credits. Reagan repeatedly said throughout his campaign
that he favored the credits as an issue of economic justice
and parental rights for taxpayers who want to send their
children to non-public elementary and secondary schools.
Non-public school officials and other supporters of the
tax benefit legislation thus have been saying that with
Reagan in the White House and Republicans dominating
the Senate, chances of tuition tax credits being enacted
into law during 1981 or 1982 are very good.
But as with all legislative proposals, the initial
optimism over the opportunity to pass a long-awaited bill
has to be tempered with the reality of the legislative
process with all its potential roadblocks. There also are
the legal challenges which are certain to be set in motion
by strict church-state separationists should the proposal
become law.
Of course, one of the major roadblocks has been
removed with Reagan’s election. President Carter made no
secret of his opposition to tuition tax credits and
probably would have vetoed the measure had it been
passed by Congress in 1978. Congress then probably
would have been unable to muster enough votes to
override the president’s veto.
HOUSE SEEMS WILLING
Though nothing is certain in Capitol Hill politics, the
House appears willing to continue its support for the
credits.
When the House approved tuition tax credits in 1978,
two key votes approving the legislation were 209-194 and
207-183. Although those votes gave tuition tax credit
supporters only narrow victories, it would probably be
safe to assume that the Republican gain of more than 30
House seats - though still not a majority - would give
tuition tax credits an even safer margin. The Republican
platform strongly expresses support for the legislation.
The measure also should have an easier time next year
in the House Ways and Means Committee, which would
have jurisdiction over any tax credit proposal. Rep. A1
Ullman (D-Ore.), the committee’s chairman, opposed the
credit in 1978. But he was defeated for re-election Nov. 4,
and his probable successor as chairman, Rep. Daniel
Rostenkowski (D-Ill.), a Catholic from Chicago, has voted
for tuition tax credits in the past.
In the Senate, there also is some room for optimism on
tuition tax credits, though chances for passage there seems
less certain than in the House.
When the Senate defeated tuition tax credits in 1978,
the vote was 56-41. Of the 56 senators who voted against
the measure, 33 will still be in the Senate next year.
Likewise, of the 41 senators who voted for the credits,
only 27 will still be around to vote for the legislation
again. Thus, backers of the measure need at least 23
commitments from either new senators or senators who
have changed their minds before they can claim a
majority.
Another indication of the tough time the legislation
might have in the Senate is the overwhelming defeat
earlier this year of the proposal by Sen. Daniel Patrick
Moynihan (D-N.Y.) to give needy non-public elementary
and high school students federal grants to help pay
tuition. Of the 71 senators who voted against the bill, 59
will still be members of the 97th Congress.
GOOD SIGNS IN SENATE
But there are good signs in the Senate as well. The
probable new chairman of the Finance Committee, Sen.
Robert Dole (R-Kan.), has consistently voted for aid for
non-public school students. And backers of the credits say
part of the reason it was defeated in the Senate in 1978
was the intense lobbying effort against it by the Carter
administration.
A court battle also looms if tuition tax credits are
enacted, even though the Reagan campaign argued
strenuously that the measure would pass the test of
constitutionality.
Reagan claimed that tuition tax credits are based on
the right of parents “of any or no religion” to choose the
kind of education their children should receive, thus
taking it out of the realm of church and state.
But tax credit opponents are just as forceful in arguing
that past Supreme Court decisions, especially the 1973
decision in Committee for Public Education v. Nyquist,
indicate that any program of tuition tax credits would
have the unconstitutional effect of advancing religion.
Tax credit supporters hope that if their bill does pass,
the Supreme Court might see what they say is the error in
its Nyquist decision and uphold the measure.
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Treatment Of Haitians Deplored
HAITIANS REMOVED - A Bahaman police
officer uses a club to strike one of the 102
Haitian refugees that had been living on the tiny
island of Cayo Lobos in the Bahamas for over a
month. The Haitians, who said they would rather
die than return to Haiti, were forcefully removed
by the officers. (NC Photo )
ARCHBISHOP JOHN ROACH
MIAMI (NC) - The
executive director of
Catholic Charities for the
Miami Archdiocese said
the treatment of Haitian
refugees on the tiny island
of Cayo Lobos by U.S.
government agencies and
the Bahamian government
‘ ‘raises serious questions
regarding the human rights
policy of both countries.”
On Nov. 13 Bahamian
police wielding truncheons
forced more than 100
Haitians off Cayo Lobos
and onto the gunboat
Lady Moore for the trip
back to Haiti. The
Haitians, who spent 40
days on the island, had
said they would rather die
than return to their
impoverished homeland.
“The most disturbing
aspect” of the incident,
said Msgr. Bryan O. Walsh,
the Miami Catholic
Charities director, “is the
failure to allow the United
Nations High Commission
er for Refugees’ office to
become involved in the
situation.”
Msgr. Walsh said he
understood that the U.N.
office had offered to
determine whether the
Haitians met international
refugee standards. “The
failure to take the U.N.
offer is very disturbing to
anyone concerned about
human rights,” said Msgr.
Walsh.
He also expressed
concern about a
“communications failure
within the U.S.
government.” The Coast
U.S. consular officials
would be waiting for the
Haitians when they
returned to their
homeland to provide any
help needed for those
claiming to be U.S.
citizens.
Msgr. Walsh said 12,000
“The four nations most concerned with Haiti -
France, Britain, Canada and the United States -
and their multinational corporations are the key
to solving the social and economic problems, and
ultimately the human problems. Anything we do
in south Florida, including granting political
asylum, is band-aid treatment. ”
Guard was aware of the
presence of the Haitians
on Cayo Lobos 30 days
before Washington became
aware of it, he said.
In Washington the State
Department said it deeply
regretted the violence used
in ousting the Haitians
from Cayo Lobos. We
deeply regret the violence
that occurred during their
repatriation,” said a State
Department spokesman,
John Trattner. “We are
not in a position to say
whether it was excessive,
but we repeat our
abhorrence of violence and
regret that it had to
happen.” Trattner said
Haitians had arrived in
south Florida this year and
30,000 since 1972. The
Miami Archdiocese, which
has been involved in taking
care of them, considers
them refugees just like the
Cubans who have landed
in Florida and has been
advocating that the
government consider them
refugees, he said.
Charging that Haitians
in the past have been
denied due process, Msgr.
Walsh said a U.S. District
Court in Florida had said
the Haitians are refugees
and had made a finding of
fact that political
persecution exists in Haiti.
“Until last April, when
the Refugee Act of 1980
went into effect, the
United States recognized
refugees only from
communist countries,”
said Msgr. Walsh, stating
that there was
discrimination on
ideological and
geographical grounds. The
district court found that
the Haitians had been
discriminated against on
the grounds of national
origin, he said.
Ho noted that the
Bahamian government has
said it plans to depart
25,000 Haitians by
mid-January.
The “root cause” of the
Haitian refugee problem,
Msgr. Walsh said, are the
‘‘serious political,
economic and ecological
problems in Haiti.”
“The four nations most
concerned with Haiti -
France, Britain, Canada
and the United States -
and their multinational
corporations,” he said,
“are the key to solving the
social and economic
problems, and ultimately
the human problems.
Anything we do in south
Florida, including granting
political asylum, is
Band-Aid treatment.”
Catholics Might Disagree On Birth Control Issue
WASHINGTON (NC) -
Archbishop John R.
Roach of St. Paul-Minn-
eapolis said Nov. 11 that
Catholics might remain in
the church although they
do not agree with all-
aspects of its teaching on
artificial birth control.
Pope Paul Vi’s encyclical,
“Humanae Vitae” (On
Human Life) urges an
“ongoing reconciliation”
when such a difference
between official teaching
and personal belief and
practice exists, Archbishop
Roach said. The encyclical
reaffirms church teaching
against artificial
contraception.
Questions on the birth
control topic, politics and
the Moral Majority
confronted Archbishop
Roach shortly after he was
elected president of the
National Conference of
Catholic Bishops-United
States Catholic
Conference.
He was joined at a news
conference by Bishop
James Malone of
Youngstown, Ohio, who
was chosen NCCB-USCC
vice president, and by
Archbishop John R. Quinn
of San Francisco in one of
the latter’s last news
conferences in his tenure
as NCCB-USCC president.
Responding to a query,
Archbishop Roach stated
that Catholics can
maintain full union with
the Catholic Church and
yet not agree with the
practical, pastoral
application of the papal
encyclical “Humanae
Vitae.”
He also stated that
theologians have rejected
parts of “Humanae Vitae”
and maintained a union
with the community of
the church and are not
necessarily excluded
because of their
differences.
Archbishop Quinn
suggested that it is helpful
to view this problem from
the perspective of the
history of development of
doctrine. Usually, this
development has three
stages, he said.
In the first stage the
doctrine may be implicitly
accepted but not yet really
articulated, Archbishop
Qquinn said.
Controversy ensues in
the second stage as the
doctrine is attacked and
then defended; in the
process, the doctrine
becomes more articulated
and more deeply possessed
by the Christian
community, he said.
Lastly, the explicit and
clear “possession” of the
doctrine follows, he said
According to
Archbishop Quinn,
“Huamane Vitae” is now
in the second stage. The
presence of controversy
does not mean that the
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teaching is in doubt but
that there is “an unsettled
controversial state
existing” among the
believing community, he
said.
Moreover, the church is
not used to dealing with
such a state of controversy
and dissent, the
archbishop said.
Recently, “we’ve not
experienced this kind of
public attack on the clear
teaching of the Catholic
Church,” he said. Because
there are no developed
norms for dealing with
dissent, “we are not
well-equipped to deal with
it. We are searching,
groping for a way to cope
with that.”
Discussing politics, the
three church leaders
declined to predict the
church’s exact status
relating to incoming
President Reagan’s
administration and a more
conservative Congress.
They did indicate,
however, that there
seem to be discrepancies
between the church’s
views and Reagan’s
apparent ideas or possible
congressional positions on
such issues as the SALT
treaty and capital
punishment.
“I think it’s very early
for me to make any
prophetic statements,”
Bishop Malone said.
The same type of
cordial contact the
NCCB-USCC had with the
Carter administration is
likely to exist under a
Reagan administration as
well, Archbishop Roach
added.
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