Catholic Campaign: Urban Renewal in the 90s

One of the best and most rewarding experiences of my life was teaching high school in the Bronx. The students at Mount St. Michael Academy on E. 241st Street come from typical urban families, many of them racial and ethnic minorities. They do whatever it takes both to survive in the city and to receive a quality education.

Neither of these is easy in today’s Bronx. But there is a plan currently in Congress that would address some of the problems our urban citizens face today, and it should reignite the policy debate regarding urban renewal.

The plan was authored by Representatives Jim Talent of Missouri and J. C. Watts of Oklahoma. Both are familiar with the problems facing the urban poor in this country; Talent was a principal author of a welfare reform bill two years ago, and Watts, an African-American with close ties to African-American communities around the country, has made it one of his specific goals to explore new ways of addressing the plight of the nation’s urban poor. While the plan is no panacea for Americans beneath the poverty level, it is aimed at encouraging all citizens to come together to assist one another through programs proven to be successful.

Pope John Paul II has called on Catholics to embrace both subsidiarity and solidarity, to bring political and economic power closer to people’s lives in a caring and compassionate spirit of “suffering with the poor.” By encouraging our political institutions to embrace these concepts, we can more fully understand our responsibility as Catholics and help free those burdened by tyrannical political programs to embrace their human dignity.

The Talent-Watts legislation attempts to bring us closer to that goal through four separate components. First, it would establish “renewal communities,” urban pockets of poverty subject to substantial exemptions from various forms of taxes, zoning, and other regulations, that benefit from a Work Opportunity Tax Credit to offset the hiring of individuals who are either AFDC recipients (Aid to Families with Dependent Children) or youth who are high-risk or are in need of vocational rehabilitation. Thus, businesses and organizations would be encouraged to employ these individuals, keeping them off the streets and offering them renewed life opportunities.

The second component of the legislation is of particular interest to the Catholic community: a school choice provision that would allow poor parents to provide an appropriate, quality education for their children. The bill provides scholarship assistance for tuition and transportation costs to public, charter, private, and religious schools. Each locality would be forbidden to discriminate against religious schools in any manner.

The third component of the plan provides tax credits for charitable giving to organizations that are engaged in direct assistance to the poor: for 75 percent of contributions of up to $200 per person or $400 for a joint-filing household. The fourth component of the plan offers assistance to neighborhood groups, including religious groups, who provide successful drug treatment and drug counseling activities.

The Talent-Watts plan looks to be gaining bipartisan support in the House, and some similar legislation is being considered in the Senate. Catholics have a responsibility to recognize the needs of the “least of our brothers and sisters” and to develop innovative and effective ways of assisting them in meeting those needs. Our commitment to the poor is a substantial part of our rich heritage. Public policy solutions frequently have failed to address this commitment properly, and those who argue for a public-private partnership to address these problems will surely welcome this community renewal plan as a breath of fresh air.

For the families of my former students in the Bronx and others like them, it may be the respirator that gives them another chance.

Author

  • Michael A. Ferguson

    Michael A. "Mike" Ferguson (born 1970) is an American Republican Party politician who served as member of the United States House of Representatives representing New Jersey's 7th congressional district from 2001 to 2009.

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