Some Rabbinical Students To Get State Tuition Aid.

The state budget plan that moved toward enactment on Wednesday calls for 10 percent cuts in aid to public colleges and universities, but it would add about $18 million a year in tuition assistance for students attending some private religious schools. The added money would be available to any theological student who met a new set of criteria for the state's so-called Tuition Assistance Program grants. The major potential beneficiaries would be an estimated 5,000 men who attend dozens of Orthodox rabbinical schools in New York, state officials and religious leaders said. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]