Helping Catholic Schools

As the state’s legislative session in Albany winds down, there is still time to tell legislators to support legislation that will benefit Catholic schools. Specifically, a bill called the Parental Choice in Education Act will help keep Catholic schools affordable by providing $150 million in education tax credits annually. These tax credits will provide:

·         - Tax credits directly to low-income families who send their children to Catholic and other schools, 

·         - Scholarships to students from low- and middle-income families to attend a school of their choice, 

·         - Donations to public schools for enhanced educational programming,

·         - Tax credits to teachers for their out-of-pocket classroom expenses.

The Catholic Action Network has a website that will identify your legislators and help you compose a letter to them. You can learn more at http://www.nyscatholic.org/nys-catholic-conference-action-center/?vvsrc=%2fcampaigns%2f36383%2frespond

Bishops support tax credits

Today, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops released a copy of letter to United States senators urging them to preserve the Earned Income Tax Credit and the refundable Child Tax Credit, noting:

A just framework for future budgets cannot rely on disproportionate cuts in essential services to poor persons; it requires shared sacrifice by all, including raising adequate revenues, eliminating unnecessary military and other spending, and addressing the long-term costs of health insurance and retirement programs fairly.

Poverty in this country is historically high and growing. Currently over 46 million Americans live in poverty; over 16 million of them are children. In America today, the younger a person is, the more likely they are to live in poverty. Low-income tax credits are pro-work, pro-family, and some of the most effective antipoverty programs in our nation. Every year, the Earned Income Tax Credit and the refundable Child Tax Credit lift millions of American families out of poverty and help them live in dignity and with greater economic security. These investments should be supported and protected, not undermined or forgotten. In particular, it would be unjust and unwise to fail to renew improvements and extensions of low-income tax credits as the Congress addresses tax cuts for middle-income and wealthy Americans. Poor working families and their children may not have the most powerful lobbies, but they have the greatest needs and the most compelling claim.

The rest of the letter is here.