Posted on 01/22/2020 1:31:11 PM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court seemed prepared Wednesday to rule that states violate the U.S. Constitution if they prevent religious schools from receiving some state benefits.
During an hour of courtroom argument, the court's conservatives indicated they were inclined to lower somewhat the wall of separation between church and state. If that's how the court rules, it could affect laws or constitutional provisions in 37 states that currently bar public funding for schools and churches.
The case involved a Montana program launched in 2015 to provide tax credits for people and businesses that donate to private schools. The organizations that receive the contributions then give financial aid to parents, who decide which private schools their children should attend.
But shortly after it was launched, a state agency barred any of the scholarship money from ending up at religious schools. It cited a provision of the Montana Constitution that prohibits "any direct or indirect appropriation or payment ... to aid any church, school ... controlled in whole or in part by any church."
Three mothers from low-income families went to court to challenge the restriction. One of them, Kendra Espinoza, uses the scholarship money to send her two daughters to Stillwater Christian School in Kalispell, holding yard sales to help afford the payments.
The Montana Supreme Court ruled that the scholarship program violated the state Constitution, so it struck down the entire law, eliminating the payments for both religious and secular schools. For that reason, the state's lawyer told the Supreme Court on Wednesday that there's no longer any discrimination since all private schools are treated the same.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...
Absolutely NOT!
Once the government gets it’s meat hooks into private schools, it can dictate what takes place in them.
This is a trap. Avoid it at all cost.
How would we like our private religious schools forced into presenting the latest social engineering, or demanding a race ratio be met, even thought parishioner children couldn’t do that.
Man, stay away from these snakes.
RE: Supreme Court appears likely to allow public funding for religious schools
If I were a religious school, I WOULDN’T TAKE IT!
Money from government always come with STRINGS ATTACHED. Pretty soon, when you become depended on the money for your programs, you’ll have to meet government requirements for this or that program or what to or not to include in your curriculum.
RESIST THE TEMPTATION.
FTA; “lower somewhat the wall of separation between church and state.”
Screw you NBC. You and your ignorant, undereducated employees should know there is no provision regarding “separation of church and state.”
There IS a provision against establishing a state religion.
I wouldn’t take it either, but it might become helpful with DJT setting standards
The Wisconsin charter school law gives charter schools freedom from most state rules and regulations in exchange for greater accountability for results. The charter defines the missions and methods of the charter school. The chartering authority holds the school accountable to its charter.
Wisconsin also has a school choice program. Wisconsin offers a wealth of school choice options for families. Each Wisconsin student is assigned a district based on their home address and the large majority of families elect to send their children to that school. For more information on any of other options available, please click the links below: Local public school
Both good
So worrying about govt using this as a way to get control of schools is a bit of a stretch. That'd be like saying we ought to remove tax breaks for church donations to keep Congress from appointing our preachers.
Thank you. I’m not trying to rain on everyone’s parade, but the government is not there to help. It’s there to control.
Fair enough. I would be very leery, but your taxation on donations example does ring true, if this is merely a deduction plan.
This seems to be about the money donated being tax deductible and therefore an in-kind contribution from the government (hey, I wouldn't put it past government wonks...).
Like I said, I be lost...
Again, there is no such Phrase as “The Separation of Church and State” in our beloved Federal Constitution. -[
This is the issue....
I am all for letting parents have choice, and private schools actually educated (for the most part) far better than public schools... however once they take the government money the strings will make them as inept as the public schools
I went to a Catholic grade school many years ago.
Our readers included stories about the Catholic faith.
Then the government decided they could provide some money for Catholic schools to buy new textbooks. Only hitch was....any stories about Jesus, Francis of Assisi, Father Isaac Jogues, or a Catholic family preparing for a baptism had to go.
And go they did. Our new textbooks were 100% secular.
Strings duly attached.
No problem with not taking the money. Just don’t expect me to pay into the system I am not using... let me redirect my tax dollars to the school of my choice.
I am surprised this hasnt been fought and addressed already by simply attacking the ‘charitable donations’ tax code, which allows deductions for among other things, church donations.
You’ll get a lot of sympathy with that view here.
It's a tax credit for people paying for private schools. Why should government keep the tax money of people who don't use public school and who pay for private school?
They're not "taking government money". They're getting their public school tax money back for kids who don't go to public school.
My kids went to a Catholic school in Derry, Nh in the early 1990s. We lived too far away but the local kids who went there were bused in by the same buses that dropped off the public school kids. I have no idea how they managed to do it.
I think it's the NBC News headline that is fooling some people on this thread. Public funding is not being used for private school. Private school users are getting their tax money back for public school resources that they don't use.
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