"On the third Sunday in August, I sat in Our Lady of Lourdes [Roman Catholic] Church on Main Street in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, where my summer home is located.

During his sermon, the pastor spoke with hearty approval of the tuition tax credit and asked "all parishioners" - then he noticed me and amended his request to "all parishioners who wish to do so" - to sign petitions to President Carter, available at the back of the church, for a tuition tax credit bill for elementary and secondary schools.

As virtually every parishioner signed the petitions, they talked about how the government discriminated against [Roman Catholic] parochial schools." .............

"Eventually we agreed to try to seek areas of common interest. But they were so worried about the financial plight of big-city [Roman Catholic] parochial schools, they could not see the threat to public education and to the constitutional separation of church and state posed by the tuition tax credit.

I was disappointed that they so vigorously disagreed with me, but I could understand their concern."

From .......... GOVERNING AMERICA - An Insider's Report

By Joseph A. Califano, Jr.

307 ................ EDUCATION

On August 3, the Senate Finance Committee scaled down its tuition tax credit for elementary and secondary schools to half the cost of its original bill. Senator Roth said,

The key battleground became the floor of the Senate.

If a tax credit for elementary and secondary schools passed the Senate, then the only way to stop it from becoming law would be presidential veto, an action Carter preferred not to face. We mounted a major effort to defeat the tax credit on the Senate floor, with South Carolina Senator Fritz Hollings leading the way, and Edward Kennedy spearheading the liberals concerned about civil rights as well as separation of church and state. On August 15, after three days of sometimes nasty debate, the Senate voted 56 to 41 in favor of the Hollings motion to strike the tuition tax credit for elementary and secondary schools, from the bill. The tax credit for higher education then passed by an overwhelming 65 to 27 vote. The very next day, the Senate passed by a similarly lopsided 68 to 28 vote the administration's Middle Income Student Assistance program of loans and grants.

The Congress recessed for two weeks with the different tax credit bills passed by each House poised for conference, but with the administration bill passed only by the Senate. The administration student aid program was still held up in the House Rules Committee. Over the recess, I got a sense of how deeply this issue cut with many Americans.

While we were fishing together on Cape Cod, Leo Diehl, Speaker O'Neill's closest aide, told me that the mail and pressure on House members to support a tuition tax credit for elementary and secondary schools was greater than on any issue since Watergate.

On the third Sunday in August, I sat in Our Lady of Lourdes Church on Main Street in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, where my summer home is located. During his sermon, the pastor spoke with hearty approval of the tuition tax credit and asked "all parishioners" - then he noticed me and amended his request to "all parishioners who wish to do so" - to sign petitions to President Carter, available at the back of the church, for a tuition tax credit bill for elementary and secondary schools.

As virtually every parishioner signed the petitions, they talked about how the government discriminated against parochial schools.

After the recess, the conference between House Ways and Means Committee and Senate Finance Committee members was a difficult one. Not until Russell Long refused to sign the conference report unless the tax credit for elementary and secondary school tuition was eliminated did the House retreat. On September 28, the conferees agreed on a bill that provided tax credits up to $250 per student for post-secondary education. Carter was pleased; this meant he would not have to veto a bill with widespread Catholic support.

308 ........................ GOVERNING AMERICA

Now the veto, if necessary, could be directed only at the higher education tax credit. Since most colleges preferred the administration student aid program of loans and grants, that veto would be a politically palatable one.

Then, on Thursday night, October 12, Dick Warden called me.

The next day, rushing toward adjournment, the House and Senate conferees agreed to extend a tax credit to secondary school students, still leaving out elementary schools .

The following Saturday night, the House passed by voice vote the administration's proposal for Middle Income Student Assistance, identical to the one approved by the Senate in August. This sent the President the bill he wanted.

On Sunday morning the handful of senators still on the floor at breakfast time sent back to conference the measure that would have extended tuition tax credits to high school as well as college students, a move at that late hour tantamount to killing the legislation. A last-ditch effort of the tuition tax credit proponents to attach their proposal to the general tax bill failed. Carter had his legislative victory without the need to veto the tuition tax credit, even for higher education. He signed the Middle Income Student Assistance Act into law on November 1, 1978. But the scars were not easily healed.

On November 11, the President met with leaders of the National Conference of [Roman] Catholic Bishops, who told him of their

with the administration's failure to support tuition tax credits for parents of parochial school children.

On December 6, at my invitation, representatives of the [Roman] Catholic bishops, colleges, and elementary and secondary schools came to HEW to discuss the issue. The group was made up predominantly of clergy with a few laymen. The atmosphere was icy as I began the meeting in the Secretary's conference room.

I asked what we could do to help them in the area of education. Some scoffed at the question. Then the meeting broke into sharp denunciations of Carter, punctuated with words like

When I mentioned that Senator Edward Kennedy and Carter were on the same side of this issue, there was a chorus of adverse comment, with one priest noting sarcastically,

Eventually we agreed to try to seek areas of common interest. But they were so worried about the financial plight of big-city parochial schools, they could not see the threat to public education and to the constitutional separation of church and state posed by the tuition tax credit. I was disappointed that they so vigorously disagreed with me, but I could understand their concern.

- END QUOTE -

GOVERNING AMERICA - An Insider's Report

From the White House and the Cabinet

By Joseph A. Califano, Jr.

Published by Simon and Schuster 1981

ISBN 0-671-25428-6