If the sizeable, bi-partisan, interfaith and corporate presence at a March 22 Statehouse press conference is any indication, the “Opportunity Scholarship Act” has the kind of broad-based support that should help it clear legislative hurdles.

The bill, introduced the same day by Democratic Sen. Raymond J. Lesniak and Republican Minority Leader Thomas Kean Jr., is aimed at providing corporate-funded scholarships to children from low-income families in poor-performing school districts.

In return, tax credits would be offered to corporations that donate to designated scholarship funds.

At the press conference, Lesniak and Kean said the intention of the bill is to improve education throughout the state with the five-year pilot scholarship program which would open the doors for children from failing schools to public and private schools with better academic track records.

Lesniak described a chronically failing school as one which, for the past two years, had 40 percent or more of its students scoring partially proficient in both language arts and mathematics or 65 percent or more scoring partially proficient in either of those two subject areas.

“Though we focus on the previous two years’ performance, many of the schools impacted by this bill have failed to meet these minimum standards for much longer,” Lesniak said.

“Partially proficient is the lowest category of student performance on our state assessments,” he noted.

“Interestingly, the education bureaucracy just can’t bring itself to say the ‘F’ word: Failing. So let me say it, these schools are chronically failing the children of our state.”

The sponsors released a list of 176 schools in 34 districts where students could be eligible for scholarships if the bill passes. The list includes 34 schools in Newark, 22 in Camden, 14 in Trenton, three in Asbury Park and one each in Neptune and Red Bank.

The bill, which is opposed by the state’s largest teachers union – the New Jersey Education Association – has the support of many organizations including: the New Jersey Catholic Conference, the New Jersey Black Minister’s Council, the Latino Leadership Alliance of New Jersey, Agudah Israel and the New Jersey Business and Industry Association.

With members of those organizations present, Lesniak described the bill as one which would give lowincome students a “chance to get a quality education, something that proves more vital every day.”

Those words were echoed by advocates of the bill who took to the microphone at the press conference and expressed their support for the package.

Prominent among them was the Archdiocese of Newark’s Auxiliary Bishop Edgar da Cunha who said the legislature has a “vested interest” in keeping schools open that do the public good by “continuing to stabilize neighborhoods that would otherwise collapse.”

Catholic schools are among those committed to offering quality, valuesbased education in safe learning environments to all who seek it, saving taxpayers $462 million per year in the Newark Archdiocese and more than $1 billion statewide. But, he said, “we can no longer shoulder the economic burden alone in providing sound educational alternatives for parents seeking them.

“We must all work hard to find a way to help all those children whose families are trying desperately to send their youngsters to private and parochial schools, especially when public schools are unable to meet their needs.”

A solution to this situation, the bishop said, is the Opportunity Scholarship Act. “Parents need some assistance from government in order to continue to choose Catholic education, which has existed in New Jersey for over 150 years,” Bishop da Cunha said. “It is too late to praise the quality of Catholic education, especially urban nonpublic education after our schools have closed their doors.”

He asked that the Legislature take up the Opportunity Scholarship Act quickly and pass it “without needless delay because this legislation will recognize the value of maintaining a viable alternative to public education.”

The Rev. Reginald T. Jackson, president of the New Jersey Black Ministers’ Council, supported the bill and predicted that this was the year it would pass.

“We have spoken out for this bill for four years,” Rev. Jackson said.

“We want this to pass this year. I am a pastor in Orange and I am on the school board there and I know that we have to make schools more important. There is a great need for change. There is a great need to give (our children) good educations.”

Quality education, he said, is a way to ensure that young people get the skills they need “to go to work as productive members of society.”

That message was reinforced by releases from the New Jersey Business & Industry Association distributed at the press conference. In the releases, the organization, which represents 22,000 businesses around the state, said that the quality of education needs to be improved in order to “better the future workforce” in New Jersey and the “costs of education must be controlled to protect the taxpayer.

“The Opportunity Scholarship Act accomplishes both of the goals so that education in New Jersey will become more effective and efficient,” the release concluded.

As legislators, clergy and business people signaled their approval of the package, a number of students and administrators from Catholic schools around the state looked on. They too had come to support the bill.

Lillian Gonzalez, a ninth grade student at Trenton Catholic Academy, sounded a similar note. It’s only right, she said, to help students attend schools that prepare them for life.

“It’s only right to help the people that need the help,” Gonzalez said.

“My mom works hard running two restaurants so we can go to Catholic school,” said Gonzalez, a member of Sacred Heart Parish, Trenton. “It would be great to have the weight lifted off of her shoulders.”