Celebrating 50 years of growth with the Detroit Jewish Community

THE JEWISH NEWS

16 TAMMUZ 5752/JULY 17, 1992

:17

3 R's And Vouchers

Will the GI Bill for Children help Jewieh day schools
erode the wall separating church and state?

,— ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM ASSISTANT EDITOR

LJ

IJ

arents with children at Jewish day
schools have, until now, had two
options: pay the tuition outright or
request a scholarship.
Under a plan introduced by
President George Bush, parents
would have a third alternative.
The GI Bill for Children would
grant middle- and low-income fam-
ilies an annual $1,000 voucher to
be used at the school of their choice
— public, private or religious. Five
hundred million dollars in federal
funds would be used to finance the
program.
The proposal was drafted late
last month and has yet to be in-
troduced in Congress.
Based on the post-World War II
GI bill, which allowed returning
servicemen to use government
grants to study at the college of
their choice, the GI Bill for
Children has become part of the
1992 Republican Party national
platform.
Expected to be approved this
week, the Democratic National

Platform does not support the GI
Bill for Children. "We oppose the
Bush administration's efforts to
bankrupt the public school system
— the bedrock of
democracy —
through private
school vouchers,"
it reads.
In an election
year already
cooking with is-
sues sensitive to
the Jewish com-
munity — in-
cluding Middle
East peace pros-
pects and abor-
tion — the school voucher question
has added yet another spice to the
Bush and Clinton campaigns.
Jewish groups, it seems, either
hate or love the proposal.
"We do not support the use of
public monies being used for pri-
vate institutions," said Diana Aviv,
associate executive vice chairman
of the National Jewish Commu-

nity Relations Advisory Council
(NJCRAC).
The measure is an "assault on
the wall of separation between
church and state," according to
Phil Baum, associate executive di-
rector of the American Jewish
Congress. "Federally subsidizing
parochial schools raises the specter
that strings may someday be at-
tached to the acceptance of such
funds."
"This is not a violation of the
First Amendment, which states

Inside

UP FRONT

Jewish Impact

Delegates nationally,
and from Michigan,
work the Dem convention.
page 11

BACKGROUND

No Illusions

The Rabin government
is not a new Camelot.
page 35

SPORTS

that government shall not estab-
lish a religion" counters David
Zwiebel, general counsel for the
Agudath Israel of America, an
Orthodox Jewish advocacy group.
`That would be true only if the gov-
ernment directly gave money to
a religious entity.
"Under the GI Bill, parents
VOUCHERS/page 32

Hoop Scoop

A Detroiter wins
his NBA dream job.
page 47

CLOSE-UP

Twenty years after the first woman
was ordained, female rabbis have
made great strides in the Reform and
Conservative movements. Many
religious leaders believe it is just a
matter of time before women are
involved in all areas of rabbinic life,
even in Orthodox ranks. The women's
issue has changed the rabbinical
schools, even the liturgy. How quickly
will these changes be reflected in
everyday Jewish life?

Story on page 23

POLITICS

Not Lackluster

In New
Hands

Story on page 26

A huge field battles
for a seat as trustee
in contentious W. Bloomfield
page 51

Contents on page 5