Lobby for Largesse

CHURCH & STATE

Under consideration by the legislatures of Michigan, Rhode Island, Penn sylvania and Louisiana last week were bills that would significantly increase state aid to students in private schools.

Whether or not the measures passed, it was certain that lawmakers would not vote them down lightly. All of the bills have the backing of Citizens for Educational Freedom--the nation's most militant lobby for channeling tax money to nonpublic education.

Founded in 1959 by a group of St. Louis parents, CEF has since grown to 150,000 members in 36 states. Though its supporters include some conservative Protestants and Orthodox Jews, the organization is 85% Roman Catholic--a fact reflecting the financial difficulties of the nation's Catholic parochial schools, which are hard pressed to keep up with rising teacher salaries and equipment costs. One of CEF's major arguments is that unless these schools receive more state help, they may collapse and saddle the public schools with their pupils. "It is not only our problem," insists CEF Michigan Director Stuart Hubbell, a Catholic. "All we are saying is give us the minimal assistance or face the inevitable closing of our schools in vast numbers."

Telegrams & Letters. CEF has developed an impressively efficient lobbying machine. Financed by dues ranging from $5 to $100 a year, it maintains offices in Washington and several states, puts out a bimonthly newspaper called Freedom in Education. Through its local chapters, CEF issues calls for public pressure on legislators whenever a bill affecting nonpublic schools is at issue; its supporters faithfully respond by inundating lawmakers with telegrams and letters. One day last November, Pennsylvania Governor Raymond Shafer was deluged with 100,000 telegrams from CEF enthusiasts supporting a parochial pupil aid bill. The Michigan CEF arranged for Catholic schools to give students a homework-free night--on the condition that each wrote six letters to legislators urging passage of CEF proposals.

In New York last year, CEF lost an expensive battle to repeal the state's Blaine Amendment, which prohibits state aid to parochial schools; elsewhere, it has recorded several victories for its cause. CEF pressure was behind recent laws passed by half a dozen states permitting parochial school students to be transported in public school buses. In Ohio and Michigan, the organization helped push through legislation supplying auxiliary services to parochial schools, such as counselors and specialized teachers, at a total annual cost of approximately $ 15 million. In Rhode Island and Michigan, it is now campaigning for tuition grants from states to parents of parochial school children as a partial rebate for the school taxes they pay. One of its slogans: "Need--not creed."

Against the Hard Sell. CEF's muscular pursuit of its goals has stirred angry opposition, led by the American Civil Liberties Union, which contends that state aid to parochial schools violates the separation of church and state and undermines the public school system. Many Protestant church leaders have equally strong feelings about it. In Providence, R.I., this month, the Rev. C. Clifford Sargent, superintendent of the Methodist district, asked that a message be read from the district's pulpits urging defeat of the Rhode Island tuition grant bill. In Pennsylvania, state aid to parochial schools has been opposed by a number of religious groups, including the mostly Protestant state Council of Churches.

Even some Catholics criticize CEF's hard-sell tactics on the ground that they could end up by making more enemies than friends for the parochial school cause. Nevertheless, the organization plans no letup in its crusade for what it terms "the right of parents to educate their children as they see fit." Says National President Paul Mecklenborg of Cincinnati, a Catholic accountant: "Our main concern is the equal distribution of the tax dollar, no matter where the child goes, as long as the school is accredited." Insists James Pie, a CEF Catholic spokesman in Pennsylvania: "The more CEF tells the story, the more converts we are going to get."

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