Cecil A. Partee Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

he was there. We joined him in 1967 after reapportionment and there were
then Sour or five of us in the Senate.
Q: I see.
A: But he was a nice fellow.
Q: In regard to grants to non-public schools, Senator Cherry introduced
a bill in 1972, plus yourself and some 20 others, allowing these grants.
you recall that situation?
Do
A: Yes, I do. The bills would benefit principally parochial and Catholic
schools, I had the view that if, for example, there were no parochial or
there were no Catholic schools, the cost of education of the children who
were in those schools would, of course, be borne by the state. And we were
always at a crisis situation in providing sufficient dollars for those
youngsters who were in public schools. If we had to open up public schools
to every single youngster in this state, including those who attended
Cathalic schools, the bill would have been a great deal more money. So
from a practical standpoint, and ecanamic standpoint, I felt it was justified
to give some sort of subsidy or some money for the support of our
parochial and Catholic schools.
The question, of course, was not that simple. The other side of that
question related to the constitutional impact of that question. Whether or
not it was within the framework of constitutional province to do that.
There is, of course, a very clear part of our constitution in terms of
separation of state from religion and there were thase who were opposed on
the basis that this would be dollars from the state going to support a
religion. That, of course, is a question that was litigated very, many
times in our own Supreme Court and in the Supreme Court of the United
States on various approaches to it. There were approaches to subsidizing
the busing, there were approaches to purchasing and furnishing books.
There were several questions that arose and were faced on an individual
basis in that general area.
Q: Yes. How did you get involved with that bill?
A: Well, just as I've said, I thought that if we could, constitutionally,
subsidize a portion of the expenses of the parochial schools, we would
economically be saving a lot of money because it would mean that we would
be spending a lot more if they closed, if all those parochial schools
closed aqd all of those youngsters had to go into the public school system.
Q: How was the idea of the bill started? Were you involved in coming up
with the idea that there ought to be . . .
A: No, I wasn't involved in the idea of coming up with it. I suppose
the idea emanated from the Catholic schools, probably, throughout the state
and particularly those in Chicago. We were importuned by the hierarchy of