Catholic school parents demand financial aid from state
Bay Ridge rally held in support of education tax credit bill
Francesca Emery, whose son Matias is a first grader at Holy Angels Catholic Academy in Bay Ridge, said New York State should be doing more to help financially strapped parents who choose to send their kids to religious or private schools. “I’m hoping we’re on the road to getting a tax credit,” she told the Brooklyn Eagle.
Providing financial support to non-public school parents would actually wind up helping the public schools, too, according to Emery, who said that if more parents could afford a religious or private school education, those schools would be able to keep their doors open, thereby preventing the public schools from becoming more overcrowded. “If the Catholic and private schools closed, the Department of Education would not be able to accommodate all of the extra children who would have to go to the public schools,” she told the Eagle.
Emery was one of a group of parents and educators who attended a rally organized by state Sen. Marty Golden (R-C-Bay Ridge-southern Brooklyn) and Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis (R-C-Bay Ridge-Staten Island) at Holy Angels at 337 74th St. on March 14 to call on the State Legislature to pass a bill that would create an Education Investment Tax Credit in the state.