NYC Councilman Simcha Felder (D-Brooklyn,) who has joined with Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. (D-Queens) in sponsoring a council resolution supporting Gov. Pataki's proposed tuition tax credits for parents, writes a blistering op-ed in this morning's NY Sun. (The Sun was all over education this morning, by the way.)

Felder writes that “either the Assembly doesn’t get what we’re fighting for or it wants to pretend that it doesn’t.” (Though you kind of get the feeling from reading this piece that Felder knows damn well which option is the real answer.) He explains why he feels the watered-down compromise plan on the tuition tax credits, advanced by the Assembly after some intense opposition from NYSUT, is a step backward here. (For those playing at home, the Assembly converted the "tuition tax credit" to a "child tax credit" so as not to pave the way for vouchers.)

Here’s a sampling:

I welcome any attempt to help defray the cost of baby powder, but not at the expense of an attempt to help pay for private school costs. As nice as it is for low-income parents to get $200 toward diapers, a tax exemption of even $1 toward private school tuition sends a far more valuable message to private school families, for whom this issue is not just about the dollar amount of the exemption. Really, it's about getting the government to begin to be honest about how much tax money parents of private school children pump into a public school system that gives them very little, if anything, in return.

Felder basically says the Democrats in the Assembly are a bunch of cowards when it comes to dealing with these guys, and even gives the telephone number for people to call Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver to complain about the situation.

Also in the Sun, on the tax credit topic, Jacob Gershman notes that tuition tax credit supporters have shelled out more than $500,000 on direct mail and advertisements.