N.Y. Archbishop Backs State Tax Credit for School Gifts

Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, the archbishop of New York, will lobby state lawmakers in support of a plan to substantially increase tax breaks for donations to public schools and nonprofit scholarship funds, writes The New York Times.

The cardinal has blogged and spoken at rallies in favor of the proposed education investment tax credit and is slated to push for the provision in Albany Tuesday ahead of the state’s April 1 budget deadline. “Anything we can do to help education, to help our kids, we want to do it as vigorously as possible. And I don’t know of a bill that does that better than the one that we’ve got now,” he said.

Supporters say the tax credit will help struggling public and parochial schools and students who cannot afford private institutions, but the measure is opposed by teachers’ unions, which term it a thinly veiled voucher program.