§ 559. Legislative findings. The legislature hereby finds and declares
that:

1. The vitality of our pluralistic society is, in part, dependent upon
the capacity of individual parents to select a school, other than
public, for the education of their children. A healthy competitive and
diverse alternative to public education is not only desirable but indeed
vital to a state and nation that have continually reaffirmed the value
of individual differences.

2. The Supreme Court of the United States has recognized and
reaffirmed this right of selection. This right, however, is diminished
or even denied to children of lower-income families, whose parents, of
all groups, have the least options in determining where their children
are to be educated.

3. Quality education is made possible for all children in our state
only because the burden of providing it has been carried by taxpayers
who support both public and nonpublic education. Any precipitous decline
in the number of nonpublic school pupils would cause a massive increase
in public school enrollment and costs. Such an increase would seriously
jeopardize quality education for all children and aggravate an already
serious fiscal crisis in public education.

4. In recognition of the initiative of parents who support both public
and nonpublic education, it is a legitimate purpose for the state to
partially relieve the financial burden of parents who provide a
nonpublic education for their children which satisfies the compulsory
education laws of the state. Such assistance is clearly secular, neutral
and nonideological in nature and is consistent with the historical and
continuing role of the state in providing a quality education for all
children and in nurturing a pluralistic society.

5. The Arthur O. Eve Elementary and Secondary Education Opportunity
Program is hereby established, which consists of tuition reimbursement
for parents of low income, in order to provide partial assistance in
meeting the financial burden of supporting the compulsory education of
their children who are full-time students in New York nonpublic
elementary and secondary schools.