Teachers Union Moves To Stymie Private School-Linked Tax Credit

This is what school reformers are up against.  Very sobering...

Two weeks before the state Senate completed its budget proposal, New York's teachers union swung into action...

Responding to the Senate's budget preview, the union spent close to $1 million in an intense lobbying campaign that targeted the most vulnerable Republican lawmakers. The effort included a $750,000 television spot that ran across the state and featured a slow-motion montage of people, including a little girl on the brink of tears and a somber African-American family, waving goodbye "to the money that our public schools need." Union leaders organized a phone bank operation to get members to swamp lawmakers with telephone calls and faxes.

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Teachers Union Moves To Stymie Private School-Linked Tax Credit

BY JACOB GERSHMAN - Staff Reporter of the Sun
March 15, 2006
URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/29152

 

ALBANY - Two weeks before the state Senate completed its budget proposal, New York's teachers union swung into action.

At the end of last month, the Republican leadership led by Joseph Bruno announced that it would propose an education tax credit that would be given to parents "for costs of attending another public school, a qualified nonpublic school, or for tutoring."

For New York State United Teachers, the idea of a tax credit linked to private school tuition was a major threat.

It would be an embarrassing defeat for the union, which fears that the tax credits would open the door to larger tuition programs and would force the public school teachers to compete against private schools for tax dollars.

If the Senate backed the plan, which is favored by Governor Pataki and the Catholic Church, its chances of ending up in the final budget agreement would have increased greatly.

Responding to the Senate's budget preview, the union spent close to $1 million in an intense lobbying campaign that targeted the most vulnerable Republican lawmakers...