European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - July 31, 1978, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 12 the stars and stripes Roy Wilkins monday july 31, 1978 i never tire of watching them a private schools should not receive subsidies How Many More supreme court Rul Ings do we need to engrave in the constitutional Bedrock the principle that Church and state should be separate the proposed Federal tax credit or parents who Send their children to private elementary and secondary schools has the potential of subsidizing religious schools with Public Money. This is not a new device. In the words of the supreme court itself Many ingenious plans for changeling state Aid to sectarian schools have Bee advanced Over the years. Tuition tax credit legislation was pro posed by Richard Nixon and sponsored in the House of representatives by Wilbur Mills. But the supreme court in 1973 invalid column Sand comments dated tax credits As applied to tuition paid to religious or sectarian elementary and secondary schools. That ruling has not deterred sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan who this year sponsored still another tuition tax credit Bill. It is known As the Packwood Moynihan Bill. Today several religious organizations Are included among the Long list of opponents to tuition tax credit for private ele i Centary and secondary school attendance. The National coalition to save Public Edu i Catlon also included the american Assoc a of Uon of colleges of teacher education the or National Congress of parents and teach in ers the National school Board Assoc a. Uon and the american civil liberties Union. The coalition Hopes to convince the pub Lic that granting tax credits to subsidize private schools would fatally undermine the nation s Public education system and threaten the separation of Church and state. In their View tuition tax credit sub reidies will outstrip current Federal Aid per Public school Pupil shift limited monies a Jerom the Public to private schools and and tersely affect the 90 percent of american. Schoolchildren who attend Public school. The coalition states that the Public will �. Be taxed twice once to support public1 schools through existing programs and t be second time to subsidize the private schools through a tuition tax credit with no Choice in the  obviously such t double taxation could create pressures to reduce fiscal support for the Public is set it is very Likely to be  this is a death blow to Public school sys tems already strapped for funds As voters increasingly reject school Bond issues. The House Bill allows taxpayers to de duct $100 from their taxes for each College student in the family and $50 for every Pri vate school Pupil. The credit would in crease annually until it reaches $230 per College student and $100 for every private school student by 1980. The Senate version is much More  a time people Are crying for tax cuts proposition 13 fever is spreading the Tui Tion tax credit proposal is an appetizer for politicians to take Back Home in this elec Tion year. But at Best it is Foolhardy strategy for tax Relief. At worst it is what Vernon Jor Dan terms a flashy election year  Federal subsidies would go to those who would need it least. The congressional budget office has estimated that 59 per cent of the benefits offered under the elementary and secondary sections of the Tui Tion tax credit Bill would go to families with incomes of $25.000 or More. The Acle and the a act predict a devastating Impact on school desegregation efforts if the tuition tax credit scheme becomes . And the Acle. That principal defender of religious Freedom asserts that the Bill would raise Issue again with the supreme court s painstaking efforts to prohibit any enactment which either advances or inhibits religion. The Bill is headed for a sure presidential veto but the people should know and con cur with the cogent reasons for the reject Ion of this legislation. C the Register and Tribune Syndicate James j. Kilpatrick tour Homes your fishbowl the Leoc got its comeuppance 1 Vernon Jordan president of the nation of Al Urban league also warns once a Tui Tion tax credit passes at whatever level it of All the Federal agencies engaged in harassment of the american Busi Ness Community none is More feared or resented than the equal employment Opportunity commission Leoc. The com Mission is More powerful in some respects than other agencies dealing with safety health or Trade practices. Among the bureaucracies it stands like Goliath. Well Goliath got his comeuppance the other Day. The Story should infuriate the taxpayers but it offers Hope to the Busi Ness Community. The Dat Point Case demonstrates that it is indeed possible for an employer to tight Back successfully against the massive malicious Power of government attorneys who Are obsessed twwasclp5eheauaptr our path with the prosecution of frivolous charges. Dat Point corporation just outside san Antonio is a manufacturer of data proc Essing equipment. The company was organized in 1968 it nearly went bankrupt in 1971 it has managed to survive handsomely in the highly competitive Market for computer software but in december of 1970 it was in serious trouble. That was when the company gave a very modest raise in pay to an employee named Helen Sirra. According to the record she was dissatisfied she disrupted production lines she stirred up dissension. She was fired. In May of 1972 she sued charging that she had been discriminated against because she is a mexican american. An other two years passed and in april of 1974 the Leoc suddenly joined is. Sierra with a lawsuit of its own. By this time Dat Point was on its feet. The company was proud of its affirmative action program. It keenly resented the charge of discrimination and it refused to be pushed around. A docs suit came on for trial in March 1976, before . District judge John h. Wood jr., in san Antonio. Keep in mind if you will that the commission had charged Dat Point with every kind of racial discrimination known to the civil rights act. Dat Point had spent nearly two years pre paring its defense against these charges. And Onishe morning of the trial without an Advance word to the company or to the court a docs counsel blandly abandoned 90 percent of its accusations. In support of the few charges that it still pursued coun Sel offered nothing but raw  these were statistical exhibits including some memoranda prepared on the Day be fore the trial. No expert statistician was put on the stand. In a classic understate ment the Leoc s appellate counsel later would acknowledge serious errors in the preparation of this  judge Wood s findings make it Clear that these errors were More than merely serious. He totally exonerated the cons by in his original opinion of april 1976. The government appealed to the fifth circuit and lost on Appeal. The Case then West Back to judge Wood in april of  sole Issue of awarding attorney s few to i prevailing defendant in a civil rights Mil on june 28, judge Wood handed Down Worder that would Blister the hide of were Phant. He found a docs trial counsel guilty of contumacious behaviour in Failin Glo observe the rules of Federal procedure. To commission s claims against data Piffl were groundless and  suit was brought "vexauouth/.". To charges were pursued for the sole of increasing defendant s expense my � increase the nuisance value of the us. � sum the Leoc s Case was brought jew prosecuted in bad  the majority the Leoc s claims were Fri Toul i were known by the Leoc to be Fri Volom the time it filed its initial complaint judge Wood then awarded a Twig $66,540 in attorney s fees on top of he earlier awarded in costs of trial Prepon lion. This Means that the cont Maeh frivolous groundless unreasonable a vexatious conduct of the government Tri Al lawyers already has Cost the taxpayer $87.890. A spokesman in the  division indicates that judge Wood s order probably will not be appealed Bat d final decision has been reached. A a Man in the office of trial counsel that we had a Good Case against dab Point but it was not Well  the same shocking professional i conduct were to occur in private Industry somebody1 s head would Roll. But within theoc contrary to the familiar Story complacent Goliath will clamber Back this feet and continue along his costly contumacious Trail. C  Star syndic