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is essential to the continued political and social health of this country. ingly, we oppose all proposals which would allow public funds to be used for private schools. Last April, in his Message on Special Revenue for Education, President

Nixon stated:

"Non-public schools bear a significant share of the cost and effort of providing education for our children today. Federal aid to education should take this fully into account. This proposal would do that by considerably broadening the authority for extending aid to students in non-public schools. Non-public school students would be counted in the reckoning of population for purposes of allocation, and all forms of educational services would be available to them.

It is apparent that S. 1669 could well provide substantial support to nonpublic schools - a development which we deplore. Once the concept of federal revenue-sharing is extended to include church schools we will have made a major departure from our basic doctrine of separation of church and state, and we may then expect to see further weakening of the wall of separation.

To us the consti

tutional and historical safeguards of separation of church and state represent, not sterile legal doctrine, but important public policy a policy which must not be diluted or otherwise weakened.

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There is no doubt that public education needs strengthening planning, greater accountability, and greater financial support. This is true in every state and in every school district in the country. However, the bill before us falls far short of meeting those needs, and, in our opinion, it carries within it the potential for great harm

both to education and to our society as a whole.

We hope the Committee will reject this proposal.

Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you to voice our concerns.

Senator PELL. Our next and final witness is Mr. Edward D'Alessio of the U.S. Catholic Conference. Would you introduce your colleagues, please?

STATEMENT OF EDWARD R. D'ALESSIO, PH. D., DIRECTOR, DIVISION OF ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION, U.S. CATHOLIC CONFERENCE, ACCOMPANIED BY: REV. FRANK H. BREDEWEG, C.S.B., DIRECTOR OF SPECIAL PROJECTS, NATIONAL CATHOLIC EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION; AND FRANK J. MONAHAN, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF GOVERNMENTAL PROGRAMS, DIVISION OF ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION, U.S. CATHOLIC CONFERENCE

Mr. D'ALESSIO. Yes; on my right is Father Frank Bredeweg, director of special projects, National Catholic Educational Association and on my left is Frank Monahan, assistant director of governmental programs, Division of Elementary and Secondary Education, U.S. Catholic Conference.

Senator PELL. Have you a prepared statement?

Mr. D'ALESSIO. Yes; we do.

Senator PELL. If you would like to abbreviate it, the whole text will appear in the record or you may read the whole thing. (The prepared statement of Mr. D'Alessio follows:)

Statement of

Edward R. D'Alessio, Ph.D.
Director

Division of Elementary and Secondary Education
United States Catholic Conference

Before the

Subcommittee on Education
of the

Committee on Labor and Public Welfare
United States Senate

Wednesday, November 3, 1971
2:30 P.M.

Accompanied by:

Rev. Frank H. Bredeweg, C.S.B.

Director of Special Projects

National Catholic Educational Association

Frank J. Monahan

Assistant Director, Governmental Programs

Division of Elementary and Secondary Education
United States Catholic Conference

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee:

I want first to express my gratitude and that of my

colleagues, Father Bredeweg and Mr. Monahan, for the opportunity to speak with you today about the important issues being considered by this Committee. Although the primary concern of the Division of Elementary and Secondary Education of the United States Catholic Conference is the continued welfare and improvement of Catholic schools, the Division, like other responsible agencies in American education, realizes that all American schools

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public and private

nonprofit, church-related as well as non-denominational

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united in the effort to provide better education for the country's children and young people. Nonpublic elementary and secondary schools, moreover, now educate some five million American children and young people. One elementary and secondary student in every nine in the United States attends such a school. On the basis of size

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large majority of which are Catholic schools, constitute a significant

segment of the total American educational enterprize.

They are, as

President Nixon has said, an "integral part" of American education.

As I indicated in the Director's statement to the President's

Commission on School Finance earlier this year, the Federal

government has the responsibility to take a truly comprehensive view

of American education, and adopt programs and policies that will

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contribute to the well-being of both the public and nonpublic schools; the Federal government should view itself as an"enabler" of educational excellence in all American schools. It must help to create the practical partnership in American education which, one hopes, will be an emerging reality of the years ahead. As President Nixon concluded in his Education Revenue Sharing Proposal to Congress, April 6, 1971, "nonpublic schools bear a significant share of the cost and effort of providing education for our children today. Federal aid to education should take this fully into account."

Although our specific concern today is the effect that S.1669, the "Education Revenue Sharing Act of 1971", would have on Federal assistance programs in which students attending nonpublic schools are eligible to participate, we at the United States Catholic Conference also have a keen interest in the broader implications of the "revenue sharing" approach to the Federal financing of American education. Education revenue sharing is, in our view, more accurately described as "categorical grant-in-aid consolidation" or "block granting" because it proposes a massive combination of thirty-three existing Federal elementary and secondary educational programs into five broad categories. State and local educational agencies would share in Federal revenues for the purpose of "administering them in carrying out

educational programs reflecting areas of national concern."

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