I don't mean, when I say a "religious school," a school which is backed by a religious group. I mean a school which is devoted to the teaching of religion or in which religious matters predominate or seriously affect the curriculum should be excluded from this group. Mr. HAMILTON. If it is devoted exclusively to that subject? Mr. COSTANTINO. Yes. For example I have in mind Sogang University in Korea which is a Jesuit-sponsored institution. That does not mean that Sogang's exclusive preoccupation is religion or that we contemplate getting involved in the teaching of religion. On the other hand, at least two or three Israeli institutions named by the House Foreign Affairs Committee and by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee appear questionable. However, we have excluded religious education and have not made grants for that purpose. Mr. HARRINGTON. Many of the institutions in Israel, of course, have a strong religious flavor. DISTINCTION IN ISRAEL Mr. HAMILTON. How do you make this distinction in Israel? Mr. COSTANTINO. We have reviewed applications keeping this point very much in mind. If the curriculum is not religious, we don't think we should discriminate against the sponsors simply because they belong to one religious group as against another but sectarian schools do cause us pause. We include an "equal opportunity" clause in all our grants, but we have not pressed this issue since all of these schools have been picked by Congress. Mr. HAMILTON. That present list that we put into our committee report, are there some institutions that would be excluded in your view by reason of the application of that principle? Mr. COSTANTINO. As religious schools? In terms of the Israeli schools, we find that almost all the schools with which we have to deal have, of course, some religious flavor, but so long as the funds requested from us are not directed to the teaching of religion as such we consider them eligible. However, eligible or not, we think most of these schools are marginal in terms of what we think should be done with section 214 funds in the U.S. interest. Mr. HAMILTON. Could you identify those for us? Mr. COSTANTINO. If I may be excused from doing so, sir, it would make my life more bearable. I must live with several which received line item appropriations from the Congress. Hopefully, the Congress will not resume this practice. Mr. HAMILTON. All right. STAYING ON LIST Is it true that once a school is on the list for support it is hard to get it off? Mr. COSTANTINO. It would not cost me too much anguish to remove some, but there tends to be a great deal of support in Congress for continuation of assistance to some. The record would indicate that once a school has received help, or once even a board of directors in the United States supporting a given school abroad has obtained assistance, that that board realizes that it can obtain further funds for further projects and tends to come back and request monies for more projects. Mr. HAMILTON. How many schools once on the list are no longer on the list? Mr. COSTANTINO. I would like to supply that for the record, sir, but I may say now I don't believe there are many. Mr. HAMILTON. Just several, or 10 or 12? Mr. COSTANTINO. Several. You see, here, again, the question is we get requests from a board or a group in the United States on behalf of a school. They receive that assistance and a year or so later they come in requesting assistance for another school. Our question then is, is it the same school? Is it really a branch? Is it the same group? What is it? (The information referred to follows:) INSTITUTIONS WHICH HAVE NOT RECEIVED OR REQUESTED ASSISTANCE SINCE THE FISCAL YEAR SHOWN AMERICAN SPONSORING ORGANIZATIONS WHICH HAVE RECEIVED OR APPLIED FOR GRANTS FOR MORE THAN According to the Kennedy Educational Foundation, Beth Oloth is affiliated with the Jerusalem College for Women. 2 The Bina Educational and Philanthropic Foundation, Inc., has requested that it be a cosponsor of the Betsefer Tichoni Lemechonaim. 3 Or Hachayim is cosponsoring the Bnei Brak Hospital and School of Nursing with Bnei Brak Hospital, Inc. PROPER ADMINISTRATIVE CHANNELS Mr. HAMILTON. Dr. Harrington, you talk on page 5 of your statement about institutions operating through proper administrative channels. What do you mean by that? Mr. HARRINGTON. I mean that if you are to have a program like the 214 program, it should be viewed as a whole. Thus someone, presumably the Office for American Schools and Hospitals Abroad, should be the central point through which all applications should flow. If a list is built in some other fashion, without going through a channel that brings all the information together, you are going to have a pretty mixed set of schools and hospitals. In this case, the particular reference is to the practice of individual institutions coming to individual Congressmen and pushing to get a school put on the list. This, it seems to me, is not desirable for the welfare of 214. Mr. HAMILTON. Gentlemen, that is all the questions I have, and I will give you a chance to conclude with any observations you think might be helpful to the subcommittee. Mr. COSTANTINO. Mr. Chairman, I would like to thank you for your courtesy. I cannot think of any further comments I could make at this time, except that my office would be very happy to cooperate with this committee at any time on any matter of interest to it. Mr. HARRINGTON. I certainly think it is a good idea for this subcommittee and for the Foreign Affairs Committee to be examining this question. It really is a question of substantial importance to the United States and it deserves careful attention, and I am pleased that it is receiving it. Mr. HAMILTON. Well, your statements have been very helpful to us, and we do intend to pursue it at the appropriate time in the full committee, and subsequently in the legislation. Thank you very much. The subcommittee stands adjourned. (Whereupon, at 11:27 a.m., the subcommittee adjourned, to reconvene subject to call of the Chair.) APPENDIX A REQUESTS OF AID AND OF CONGRESS FOR SECTION 214 GRANTS IN FISCAL YEAR 1972 American Friends of Boystown in Jerusalem, Israel. American Hospital in Paris, France.. American Hospital in Rome, Italy.. American International School, Tel Aviv, Israel. American Research Center in Cairo, United Arab Republic. American Research Hospital for Children, Krakow, Poland. American School in Tangiers, Morocco. American University of Beirut, Lebanon.. American University in Cairo. Anatolia College, Thessaloniki, Greece. Bar Ilan University, Israel. Bayit Lepletot Girls School, Israel. Beit Ulpanah Teachers College, Israel. Amount 100.0 40.0 275.0 750.0 1 12, 200.0 15,000.0 600.0 198.0 2 600.0 300.0 6,000.0 22,660.0 683.0 75.0 5,377.0 500.0 1,000.0 Beth-Avoth American Geriatric Center, Israel. 1,200.0 |