The New York State Constitution, according to a 1982 decision by the Court of Appeals, guarantees every student a “sound basic education.” And yet many schools across the state will be unable to educate their students next year because of a lack of funds. No, we’re not talking about the public schools. New York’s public schools are flush with cash. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, New York spends $12,097 for each pupil while the average for public schools nationwide is just $9,354. If the Campaign for Fiscal Equity ruling goes through, the figure for New York City will skyrocket to absurd new heights: about $18,000 a pupil. That’s more than four times the tuition at Binghamton University.

It’s New York’s Catholic schools – where the per-pupil costs are much lower, with an average annual tuition of only $3,000 – that face a crisis. Forty-two Catholic schools throughout the state, including 27 in the city, are set to shut down at the end of the school year – and not for lack of demand. Nationally, the number of pupils in Catholic schools has been on the rise since 1991. But in New York, fewer and fewer families can afford to pay both the high taxes that support public schools and the tuition at parochial schools.

Edward Cardinal Egan went to Albany last week to urge lawmakers to offer tax credits to help parents afford to keep their children in parochial schools. A bill sponsored by state Senator Martin Golden, a Republican of Brooklyn, would offer parents a tax credit of $1,500 a child for education-related expenses. Parents with children in private schools could use it for tuition. “This is the first time there has been a reason to really study a bill like this to see if it helps a city as large as New York cope with these closings,” Mr. Golden told our Brian McGuire.

An influx of students to the public schools means more costs for the state – much more than the cost of a tuition credit. “Even with the new math, you can figure out that this would be to the benefit of the state-controlled education system,” said Cardinal Egan. Keeping the parochial schools open doesn’t just benefit New York’s taxpayers. It’s a benefit to the students as well. Nationally, over 99% of Catholic high-school students graduate and 97% go on to post-secondary education. In New York State, 65% of highschoolers graduate and a paltry 34% enroll in college, according to a 2004 report by the Education Trust. And this despite the Catholic schools’ focus on educating the poor and disadvantaged.

The fact is, New York’s parochial schools educate pupils for less than the public schools – and they do a better job of it. There’s no question that keeping them open helps provide a “sound basic education.” But Albany’s priorities tend to align more closely with New York’s teachers unions than New York’s children. After a 20-minute meeting with Cardinal Egan, the speaker of the Assembly, Sheldon Silver, told reporters that Assembly Democrats wouldn’t even consider the tax-credit proposal. He insisted, rather, that the public schools need even more money.

Albany’s inaction leaves an opening for Mayor Bloomberg to help the struggling families of the city’s 78,000 Catholic school pupils. Under the Choice Incentive Fund program proposed by President Bush, cities would be able to apply to receive federal funds to finance tuition vouchers at private and parochial schools. “We would have an open competition and cities that are interested could apply,” an official at the U.S. Department of Education, Michael Petrilli, told our Luiza Savage last week. “New York would be a strong contender.”

The fund has already proved successful in Washington, D.C., where it helps low-income families provide a higher-quality education to their children. In New York, many poor families rely on the Catholic school system. At 116 schools operated by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, 65% or more of the enrolled pupils come from families at or below the poverty line. According to the archdiocese, 66% of its New York City pupils are minorities. New York’s politicians talk about a “right” to a “sound basic education.” But for the pupils in these schools, it’s a reality. Mr. Bloomberg can demonstrate his commitment to building a “city of opportunity” by helping parents keep the schools open.