Pataki's Tax Credit Plan Stirs Controversy

In his budget address on Tuesday, New York Governor George Pataki proposed giving as much as $500 in tax credits to parents of public and private school students in New York City and 82 other failing school districts. According to yesterday's New York Sun, parents could use the dollar-for-dollar credits to pay for textbooks, school supplies, or for tuition at private and religious schools. Immediately, Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, the leading Democratic candidate for governor, and Republican gubernatorial candidate William Weld began to argue over whether the governor's plan would violate New York's constitutional ban on aid to parochial schools. The Constitution, Art. XI, Sec. 3 prohibits state aid going to "any school or institution of learning wholly or in part under the control or direction of any religious denomination, or in which any denominational tenet or doctrine is taught".