Legislative findings

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

1. The state has a primary responsibility to ensure the health, welfare and safety of children attending both public and nonpublic schools.

2. The state discharges this responsibility to public school children through substantial amounts of per pupil financial assistance to local school districts. The fiscal crisis in nonpublic education, however, has caused a diminution of proper maintenance and repair programs, threatening the health, welfare and safety of nonpublic school children, particularly in urban areas. Such areas are generally identified by a high incidence of families receiving assistance to dependent children and deteriorating physical structures, including nonpublic school buildings. Financial resources necessary to properly maintain and repair such buildings are beyond the capabilities of low-income people whose children attend nonpublic schools.

3. In recognition of the financial plight of urban areas in attracting qualified teachers, the federal government has enacted Title IV of the Higher Education Act of nineteen hundred sixty-five, which provides incentives to teachers to instruct in those schools which serve a high concentration of students from low-income families.

4. It is incumbent upon the state to ensure that the physical environment in such Title IV areas is both healthy and safe. Incidental to such goals, but none the less significant, is the contribution that a healthy and safe school environment makes to the stability of urban neighborhoods.

5. To insure a healthy and safe school environment for children attending nonpublic schools, the state has the right to make grants for maintenance and repair expenditures which are clearly secular, neutral and non-ideological in nature.