At Thanksgiving dinner tables many established rules to avoid squabbles. No talking about politics or religion.
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But now that dinner is over, we need to have a conversation about Secretary of Education elect, Betsy (Elizabeth) DeVos. DeVos a devout Christian who supports school choice and vouchers.
Why is that important information about her? Read on. For clarification purposes, originating schools shall be called “public schools” and the receiving schools shall be called “choice schools.” The jury is out as to how choice schools fully affect public schools. ( Actually they are both considered public school. In reality they may not be. )
Vouchers drain funds from public schools so that students can attend the school of (their parents) choice. That’s because the public school must send money along with the choice student voucher. That exerts pressure to increase property taxes to support public school infrastructure populated by fewer students.
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There is another factor that clouds the issue. Voucher schools are also considered public schools, even those that may foster religion with prayers in schools. That results in property taxes supporting schools that foster Christian values. (Our country is not mono-theistic.)
So, the first amendment reads, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."
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Federal law requires that there shall be publicly funded schools. If the state requires property taxes diverted to schools that include prayers in school, via the voucher process, does that violate the first amendment, separation of church and state?
The answer to that may be in the fact that there likely will now be even more out-flow of public school funding for choice schools that foster Christian values by allowing prayers in school. That's because we have an evangelical Vice President elect and a devout Christian Secretary of Education elect that is a strong advocate of school vouchers, and a president elect who ignores the constitution.
The Maine Supreme Court has denied a constitutional appeal by five families who wanted to use taxpayer money to send their children to church-affiliated schools. (but does not address choice schools that allow prayers) In a 5-1 decision, the court upheld the state's policy of restricting publicly financed vouchers to nonreligious schools. But, The US Supreme Court could have a different opinion if the new administration has a different idea about prayers in choice schools.
An organization, Americans United for separation of church and state, has ten reasons why private (choice) school vouchers should be rejected. The first four deal with vouchers for religious schools.
[if !supportLists]1. [endif]They integrate religion throughout their curriculum and often require all students to receive religious instruction and attend religious services.
[if !supportLists]2. [endif]School vouchers are little more than a backdoor way for the government to subsidize religious and other private schools.
[if !supportLists]3. [endif]Some three dozen states have church-state provisions in their constitutions that are even stronger than the U.S. Constitution. These provisions often more explicitly bar taxpayer money from being used to fund religious schools and education.
[if !supportLists]4. [endif]Since 1967, voters in 23 states have rejected vouchers and other forms of tax aid to religious schools at the ballot box.
Not only is the Republican Congress overwhelmingly influenced by Christian Conservatives, now the Republican administration is becoming mono-theistic oriented with cabinet appointments. Are the next steps Christian prayers in public schools and sports events? Will the Christian Ten Commandments be posted on all public buildings, especially public schools?
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