Borough Park, Brooklyn, NY - AG Eliot Spitzer For Funding Private Schools

Borough Park, Brooklyn, NY - Gubernatorial hopeful Eliot Spitzer said he favors funneling more state cash to private schools.

Spitzer, speaking to Orthodox Jews at a Boro Park, Brooklyn yeshiva, said it is unjust that private schools educate 15% of the state's students but get only 1% of the education budget. "We will work on that," promised Spitzer.
The Democratic front-runner does not support vouchers - public funds that can be used to help pay tuition at private schools, his spokeswoman Christine Anderson said. "He believes that measures such as the Child Tax Credit, which was enacted with his support last year, can provide relief for parents who choose to send their children to private school," she said.

The child tax credit gives parents up to $330 for each child between the ages of 4 and 17. The credit can be used to help offset private school tuition or paid tutoring programs.
It was Spitzer's opponent, Republican John Faso, who first sponsored the child tax credit legislation in 2001, when he was minority leader of the state Assembly. "If elected, Eliot will explore the feasibility of expanding such programs," Anderson said.
Spitzer also said his top priority is making public schools more accountable and securing more funding for them.