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To the Editor:
First of all, thanks to Carlo Gonnella (“Flip side,” March 1) for agreeing with me on a basic point: Taking money from the government leads to government regulation.
Catholic schools already get millions in tax support. The church pays no taxes. They also receive federal, state and locally supported child benefit services that do not violate the First Amendment, including: nurses and free health screening for students; free transportation; attendance monitoring; special education services; fire inspections; police protection; crossing guards; Title One money for books; and so forth.
Carlo’s fear that crime will be “rampant” without “religious training” is absurd. Education in an economic recovery is the best antidote to crime and violence. Meanwhile, public schools, which do not discriminate, are underfunded, as tax dollars are siphoned to privatized tiers of education like charter schools.
The Pennsylvania Education Improvement Tax Credit program alone allows businesses to direct more than $75 million per year toward scholarships to elite private and sectarian schools. With all that help, Catholic education is not going anywhere. More to think about, eh?
Gloria C. Endres
South Philadelphia
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Also in this week’s Letters to the Editor:
United we clean
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