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February 5, 1999/19 Shevat 5759, Vol. 51, No. 19
Private Jewish schools expect to benefit from court ruling on credits
ANNE BRADY
Managing Editor
Leaders of private, Jewish schools in the Valley may disagree in their approaches to responding to the Arizona Supreme Court's ruling last month on the constitutionality of tax credits for school-scholarship donations, but they all agree that they hope to take advantage of it.
"I would hope that the Jewish community would support the school and take advantage of the credit," commented Robert Templin, administrative principal of the Jewish Community High School at the Chabad-Lubavitch Center in Phoenix.
The Arizona Supreme Court ruled in an opinion issued Jan. 26 that the law passed by the state Legislature in 1997 allowing a state tax credit of up to $500 for those who donate to "school tuition organizations" (STOs) is constitutional.
STOs are charitable institutions that provide scholarships or tuition grants to children to allow them to attend a private school of their parents' choice.
Although there are no tax credits for direct payments of private-school tuition, if people take advantage of the tax credits and make donations to the STOs of their choice, more students will be able to attend private, religious schools through the use of scholarship money.
Rabbi Harris Cooperman, principal of Phoenix Hebrew Academy, said the court ruling "looks promising," but he will have to study it more to determine how and if it may benefit his Orthodox day school.
Judy Laufer, president of the board of the Solomon Schechter Day School (which plans to reopen in the fall as an independent Jewish day school), said there is "no question" that her school will research ways to take advantage of the law.
"We're already researching it, looking into how we can benefit from it," said Laufer. "It doesn't make sense not to."
Bonnie Morris, director of education at the Solel School in Paradise Valley, said that while the Reform temple's school is "very interested in taking advantage" of the court ruling, she will wait to see if the ruling is appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court before taking any action to solicit donations to scholarship funds.
"The (Arizona Supreme) Court's opinion is 85 pages long, which tells me it's still very controversial," Morris said.
Daphne Atkeson, spokeswoman for the Arizona Education Association, one of the chief plaintiffs in the lawsuit challenging the tax-credit law, said attorneys have 30 days to decide whether to appeal the case in federal court. However, she noted that the case's strongest arguments were based on the Arizona Constitution, and any appeal would have to be based on arguments that the law violates the U.S. Constitution.
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