Last week, a
tall green plant that I wanted to cut down because I was sure it was a weed
gave me a big surprise. My husband, who likes to plant seeds from the
vegetables we eat, said, “Let it grow.” Now, I’m glad I did because hidden
behind one of the leaves was a shiny green pepper. That plant just took time to
bear fruit. There are all kinds of seeds that can bear fruit – like making
calls in support of an important new bill before Congress.
* * *
A few weeks ago, Rabbi Abba Cohen, Vice President
of Government Affairs and Washington Director for Agudath Israel of America for
over 30 years, sent an “action alert” email to the community. The message was a
call to action – encouraging community members to contact their senators and representatives
to support the $10 billion “school choice” bill, entitled the Educational
Choice for Children Act, recently introduced in Congress.
This legislation
would allow a dollar-for-dollar federal tax credit for individuals and
corporations that contribute to Scholarship Granting Organizations (SGO). These
SGOs would, in turn, provide scholarships to children of eligible families for
a range of educational expenses, including
private school tuition! The great benefit of such a bill to Jewish parents
who are committed – but struggle – to give their children a sound Torah
education is obvious.
Although school
choice has seen some success on the state level, the Educational Choice for
Children Act is promoting school choice on the federal level with a budget of
ten billion dollars!
* * *
This bill is not expected to be passed in the
current congressional session, says Rabbi Cohen. He believes that, in time, the
idea is going to gain greater traction. Rabbi Cohen calls it a “messaging bill”
that sets forth goals and aspirations. “We plant seeds as we go along,” he
says. “At some point, we believe they will take root.”
The story of
school choice has spanned decades. Historically, powerful forces have been arrayed against the idea,
including teachers unions and educational bureaucrats, who believe it would harm
public schools. Advocates of school choice say it would provide competition to
public schools and lead to their improvement.
In 1961, Rabbi Moshe Sherer, then-president of
Agudath Israel and prominent yeshiva education pioneer, promoted the need for
equity between public school and private school students in federal education
programs. Testifying before Congress on behalf of Jewish parents, he said,
“Classical Judaism has, from the very inception of the Jewish people, placed
religious education in sharp focus as the centrality of life itself.” His
message, stating the importance of religious education for Jewish survival,
made an impact on Congress.
When Congress passed the Elementary and Secondary
Education Act, it contained the principle of “equitable participation” of
private school students in several of its important programs, such as Title I
remedial education. This would prove to be a boon to the growing Jewish day school
movement.
Yet school choice, which has now taken many forms
on both the federal and state levels, is an outgrowth of the concept of equity.
To many education thinkers, making private school options available to all
students offers a chance for those in failing public schools to enjoy better
educational opportunities and a brighter future. To others, it offers a viable
avenue to raise the level of public education, as public schools will be
competing with both out-of- district schools and private schools to retain good
students.
* * *
Policymakers recognize that the American education
system is in need of reform, says Rabbi Cohen. An increasing number of parents
and elected officials believe that school choice offers a viable means to deal with
the problem. “We share these concerns as our community and all Americans
have a strong stake in public education, and we want it to succeed. The better
the schools, the better for all of us.”
He asserts that our community also understands the
enormous benefits to our families as a result of school choice. “We want and
need an educational system that allows our parents to choose the most
appropriate education for our children, one that reflects our values and
goals,” says Rabbi Cohen. “It is not only good public policy, but it can remove
the enormous financial burdens crushing both Orthodox families and the schools
that serve them.”
The growing interest in school choice has been
accompanied over the years with several favorable U.S. Supreme Court decisions
affirming its constitutionality and, more recently, declaring that school
choice programs must include religious and secular school options.
Reflecting
back on Rabbi Sherer’s words, Rabbi Cohen also emphasizes the importance of
Jewish education both as a fundamental religious obligation and as the key to
Jewish survival. “The larger Jewish world continues to worry about the Jewish
commitment of future generations,” observes Rabbi Cohen. “But the answer to
survival is clearly Jewish education, and that is why it is – and must be – among our uppermost priorities. Helping parents
provide their children with a Jewish education is why school choice is so
important.”
* * *
Rabbi Cohen began his work in Washington 34
years ago. At that time, he asserts, “If someone mentioned school choice, they’d
be laughed out of town. On Capitol Hill, it was very far from anyone’s
mind.” Federal proposals that were put forward were very modest and didn’t
make much headway, says Rabbi Cohen, although this is hopefully changing as the
$10 Billion School Choice Bill proposes.
As mentioned above,
school choice bills are passed by the states, from where most of school
funding comes. In the state
of Maryland, Rabbi Ariel Sadwin, Executive Director of Agudath Israel of
Maryland and the Mid-Atlantic Region, since 2007, heads the first frum advocacy organization in Maryland.
Its primary focus is to create government-funded programs for private school
students. Under his guidance and with the help of his coalition partners in
Annapolis, three exciting state-funded programs have given eligible families
access to financial help. They are as follows:
·
The BOOST (Broadening
Options and Opportunities for Students) scholarship program, created during the 2016
legislation in Annapolis, has been a real “boost” for Jewish families in
Maryland. Since its inception, it has provided nearly 7,000 scholarships for a
value of more than $9.5 million dollars in direct tuition benefits.
·
MD 529, the college savings account program,
also benefits K-12 nonpublic school investments. It offers a tax deduction
on all contributions to accounts, plus there is a program where the state
contributes funds (up to $500 per account) into the accounts of income eligible
account holders. This program, too, has yielded local frum households millions of dollars over the last few years.
·
Child Care Scholarship
program (CCS) provides
financial assistance for child care for eligible working families to
attend licensed day care facilities. The income eligibility of the CCS program
is much higher and thus more generous in its offerings to families than the
BOOST program.
(For more information on application dates
and deadlines, see Agudah Maryland’s website http://agudahmd.org).
* * *
When I lived in
Atlanta, Georgia, I saw what community members can do to encourage state
representatives to pass a school choice bill. In 2008, I attended an event at
the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta. I joined teachers, parents, students, and
Rabbi David Kapenstein, then executive director of Torah Day School of Atlanta
(now development director of Toras Simcha in Baltimore). Rabbi A.D. Motzen of Agudath
Israel of America flew down to Atlanta to show appreciation to Georgia’s
legislators for passing the bill.
Torah Day School parents didn’t just
attend that thank you event. While the bill was being considered, they phoned
and emailed state representatives. Parents even sat in the gallery at many
legislative sessions at the Georgia Capitol to show their support.
Rabbi
Motzen, who works with all the states on educational issues, says that the best
way to get legislators to listen to you is “to make sure they know who you are
and what your priorities are, and to ensure that our community has high voter
turnout.” (See sidebar for more comments from Rabbi Motzen.)
As Rabbi Cohen
noted, school choice is primarily a state issue. He marvels at Maryland’s BOOST
program, which at one time was beyond anyone’s dreams. But he remains confident
that school choice is ripe for serious federal action. “We must make the effort
to educate our elected officials on Capitol Hill. Members of Congress have
constituencies, and they must be sensitive to the wants and needs of their
constituencies.”
Rabbi Cohen
reflects, “With much help from Hashem, we have made progress, step by step.” We
just have to make the phone calls, send the emails, and plant the seeds.
Sidebar
A Conversation with
Rabbi A.D. Motzen,
National Director for State Relations, Agudath Israel of America
by Ruby Katz
Q: What is “school choice”?
A: School choice or, more accurately,
educational choice, is based on the belief that parents should have the right
and financial ability to choose the educational setting that is best for their
child. Originally, this was achieved through tuition vouchers, which are checks
from the State directly to the parents (often sent to the school but requiring
the parent to endorse) to pay for their child’s tuition. But states have also
used scholarship tax credits, education savings accounts, and hybrid models.
Q: When and how did you first
represent the Agudah in the school choice issue?
A: I started working on my
first voucher bill as soon as I began working as Agudah’s Ohio director in
2005. Since then, together with Agudah directors across the country, I have
worked on school choice programs in more than a dozen states and in Washington,
D.C.
Q: How has the issue changed today?
A: When I started working on school
choice, people didn’t think we could get a voucher bill passed even in a
Republican-controlled state. Also, many policymakers and advocates thought that
you had to start with programs that were very limited in either geography or
family income level. Now, Arizona just passed the country’s first universal
scholarship program that gives every student in the state close to $7,000.
Illinois, a completely Democratically-controlled state, has a robust $100
million program, and Maryland has a voucher program. Hundreds of thousands of
children are in school choice programs across the country, and the issue polls
very well, which makes it more politically viable. This bill has the potential
to expand school choice to all 50 states.
Q: Do you remember coming to Atlanta
to meet at the capitol with Rabbi Dovid Kapenstein, teachers, and students? What
was accomplished?
A: In 2008, Agudah was part of a
small group of advocates working on a special education voucher in Georgia. The
next year we worked on a scholarship tax credit program, which is similar to a
voucher except that the funding comes from individual and corporate donations
to nonprofit scholarship organizations. The state incentivizes the
contributions by providing a dollar-for-dollar tax credit to the donor. That
means it costs nothing to the donor to make that donation. One of the keys to
our success was Rabbi Dovid Kapenstein and a group of dedicated parents. They
knocked on the door of every state senator, spoke to the governor, and showed
up to rallies. In the end, Georgia created a scholarship program that was
recently expanded to $120 million for the upcoming year, among other changes.
Students attending Jewish day schools in Georgia receive about $5 million a year
in scholarships through the program.
Q: Have you had similar meetings in
Baltimore?
A: Rabbi Ariel Sadwin, Agudah’s
Mid-Atlantic director, was one of the main leaders of the effort to create and
then expand Maryland’s $10 million BOOST voucher program, a significant portion
of which goes to students attending Jewish schools. Rabbi Sadwin has brought
parents and students to meetings and rallies at the capitol, and Governor Hogan
visited the Bais Yaakov shortly after the BOOST program was enacted to a very
warm reception. Rabbi Sadwin has developed excellent relationships with elected
officials and through them has accomplished so much for the Jewish community
and individuals in need.
Q: How are you involved in promoting
the Educational Choice for Children Act (S.4416/H.R.8137)?
A: Agudah has supported and been
intimately involved with this and similar federal proposals in the past. Our
role is to help advise the sponsors in drafting the best bill, encourage
lawmakers to co-sponsor and vote for the bill, and then help with
implementation once passed. We work together with a coalition of other
like-minded groups and individuals, and I’m always impressed how much respect
they have for Rabbi Cohen and the Agudah.
Q: Do you work with Rabbi Cohen on
this?
A: Rabbi Cohen is our man in
Washington and responsible for all federal issues, including advocacy on behalf
of this legislation. I together with our regional directors and lay leaders
across the country use our relationships with our own members of Congress to
support those efforts.
Q: It looks like Republican
representatives are helping to sponsor this bill? Why not more Democrats?
A: We will be reaching out to all
lawmakers regardless of party. School choice should be a bi-partisan issue.
Republicans include school choice on their party platforms, yet many of the
families in areas represented by Democrats are the ones most in need of more
options. In the past, there have been several pro-school choice Democrats in
the House and Senate who supported the D.C. voucher program, but unfortunately,
Washington has become a very partisan place. On the school choice issue in
particular, the teachers’ unions, which have tremendous influence in the
Democratic Party, have made fighting any type of scholarship program a top
priority. However, on the state level, as in Maryland, we have seen more
Democratic legislators support school choice.
Q: Living in a Democratic state, I’d
like to influence our representatives to support this. What’s the best way to
do that?
A: The best way to get legislators to
listen to you is to make sure they know who you are, what your priorities are,
and ensure that our community has high voter turnout. You can access our easy-to-use
link at Agudah.org/SchoolChoice to contact your member of Congress and ask that
they co-sponsor and support the bill.
Q: If the bill passes, how will that
affect individual families?
A: If the bill passes, scholarship
organizations (either existing ones or the many new ones that will be created)
can expect to generate millions of dollars in donations thanks to the
dollar-for-dollar tax credit. Eligible families will be able to apply for a
scholarship from those scholarship organizations and then use it for tuition or
other approved educational expenses. Even students attending public schools
will have access to scholarship funds to pay for additional educational
expenses. Eligible families can have an income up to 300% of the median income
level in the area as determined by HUD. Baltimore City, for example, has a
median income of just over $116,000 for a family of four, so most families will
be eligible for a scholarship.
Q: Anything you’d like to add?
A: Your readers are very
privileged to have Rabbi Sadwin at the helm of Agudah’s Maryland office.
Whether it’s the BOOST voucher program, school busing, 529 plan match, security
funding, or protecting our religious rights, Rabbi Sadwin spends every day working
tirelessly on behalf of the Jewish community. I encourage readers to go to https://agudathisrael-md.org/ to see more about the many resources provided by the
Maryland Agudah office.
.
