N.Y. Education Law § 559: Legislative findings

§ 559. Legislative findings. The legislature hereby finds and declares

that:

1. The vitality of our pluralistic society is, in part, dependent upon

the capacity of individual parents to select a school, other than

public, for the education of their children. A healthy competitive and

diverse alternative to public education is not only desirable but indeed

vital to a state and nation that have continually reaffirmed the value

of individual differences.

2. The Supreme Court of the United States has recognized and

reaffirmed this right of selection. This right, however, is diminished

or even denied to children of lower-income families, whose parents, of

all groups, have the least options in determining where their children

are to be educated.

3. Quality education is made possible for all children in our state

only because the burden of providing it has been carried by taxpayers

who support both public and nonpublic education. Any precipitous decline

in the number of nonpublic school pupils would cause a massive increase

in public school enrollment and costs. Such an increase would seriously

jeopardize quality education for all children and aggravate an already

serious fiscal crisis in public education.

4. In recognition of the initiative of parents who support both public

and nonpublic education, it is a legitimate purpose for the state to

partially relieve the financial burden of parents who provide a

nonpublic education for their children which satisfies the compulsory

education laws of the state. Such assistance is clearly secular, neutral

and nonideological in nature and is consistent with the historical and

continuing role of the state in providing a quality education for all

children and in nurturing a pluralistic society.

5. The Arthur O. Eve Elementary and Secondary Education Opportunity

Program is hereby established, which consists of tuition reimbursement

for parents of low income, in order to provide partial assistance in

meeting the financial burden of supporting the compulsory education of

their children who are full-time students in New York nonpublic

elementary and secondary schools.