Posted on 06/27/2002 6:29:18 PM PDT by RCW2001
New York, NY, June 27, 2002... The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) expressed disappointment with today's Supreme Court ruling permitting governments to continue to pay for private religious education, calling it "a step backwards for religious liberty." The League pledged to continue to oppose vouchers on policy and state constitutional grounds.
Glen A. Tobias, ADL National Chairman, and Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director, issued the following statement:
The Supreme Court's decision to allow state funds to be given to private religious schools is a disappointment and a step backwards for religious liberty in America. However, our opposition to vouchers has never been limited to federal constitutional grounds alone, and we will continue to oppose them on policy and state constitutional grounds.
We view this decision as extremely limited in its impact. The ruling is narrow and applies only to the specific fact pattern presented in Cleveland. While voucher supporters were hoping for a green light for the use of vouchers in a wide range of contexts, that is not what this decision does.
We are confident that legislators and voters will continue to oppose vouchers on policy grounds. Indeed, wherever Americans have had an opportunity to vote on vouchers, they have rejected them outright. Americans support free and fair public education and are uneasy about government funding for religious schooling.
ADL filed an amicus brief in Harris-Simmons vs. Zelman, urging the Supreme Court to uphold earlier decisions by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and U.S. District Court, which had rejected vouchers as unconstitutional. ADL had argued that separation of church and state is essential to religious liberty in America.
The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.
http://www.ajc.org/InTheMedia/PressReleases.asp?did=564
AJC Denounces Supreme Court Decision Upholding Cleveland Voucher Program
June 27, 2002 - New York -- The American Jewish Committee expressed severe disappointment with the 5-4 decision by the United States Supreme Court today in Zelman v. Simmons-Harris finding Cleveland's publicly-funded voucher program constitutional."This decision represents a troubling endorsement of unsound public policy, and, by allowing for the direct government subsidy of religious education, takes a battering ram to the constitutionally mandated wall of separation between church and state," said Jeffrey Sinensky, AJC's General Counsel. Nevertheless, he added, "AJC is undeterred and will continue to fight vouchers as invalid under state constitutional laws that often contain more stringent safeguards."
As a strong supporter of public education, AJC believes that the use of public money to support private schools, sectarian and nonsectarian alike is simply bad public policy. Contrary to the claims of voucher advocates, government subsidies will not make the difference for many low-income parents as to whether their children attend private schools. Many of those parents who now cannot afford private schools without vouchers will still be unable to do so with vouchers. Thus, low-income families will, as a rule, still be unable to send their children to quality private schools.
"Voucher initiatives create an illusion that they will somehow assist the public-school system by introducing competition," said Mr. Sinensky. "However, most poor children will remain in a public-school system already subject to severe budgetary constraints, especially in the inner city."
Mr. Sinensky emphasized that "voucher programs will inevitably deplete scarce resources even further, weakening public schools by diverting limited tax revenues to private and religious schools that often face no requirements for how they spend tax dollars on curriculum content, teacher certification, student testing, enrollment diversity, and services for students with disabilities."
The Cleveland program provided students with publicly funded vouchers to attend "alternative schools," including religious schools. Because of the way the program was designed, over 80 percent of the schools participating in the program were religiously affiliated and over 90 percent of the students enrolled in the program used their vouchers for tuition at a religious school.
As it did in the lower courts, AJC filed an amicus brief in the Supreme Court arguing that, "despite its laudable goal of improving educational opportunities for a select group of students, the program is a misguided effort both in policy and in law." On the constitutional question, AJC's brief pointed out that the program is "grossly skewed towards religious education" and has the impermissible effect of directly subsidizing the religious missions of the participating schools.
Serving as counsel to the AJC brief were Trial Lawyers for Public Justice, University of Southern California Law School Professor Erwin Chemerinsky, and New York attorneys Howard G. Kristol, Michele Cerezo-Natal, Jai Maitra Griem, and Thomas F. Wong.
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Contact: Kenneth Bandler (212) 751-4000 Ext 271 PR@ajc.org
They are probably well aware that vouchers would in fact be good for Jews. But groups like ADL, Rainbow/PUSH, et al. thrive on the problems of the groups they claim to support; things that are good for Jews are in many cases bad for the ADL, and must thus be opposed on that basis.
I think all the moderators are out sick or something. I've seen a tremendous number of posts over the last couple of days that were nothing but hate posts against various groups, blatant personal attacks, massive profanity ... but they're all still live posts.
But exposure is the best disinfectant. Most teachers don't believe in the radicalism expressed by the NEA leadership. I don't believe even liberal Jews are as liberal as Abe Foxman and the ADL and AJC leadership. Painful as it may be, the way, I think, to get the rank and file to reconsider who they support is to put the leadership's words out for all to see.
I'll get pissed when the Reform Jewish groups lke the UAHC condemns the ruling.
Um... I guess everyone already knows that though, including the ADL.
Listen carefully, you pussilanimous collection of shrill-voiced harridans:
The parents get to CHOOSE the schools, do you understand that? No longer are the majority of students to be forced to attend a school which instill the religious tenets of Secular Humanism, and force participation in Islamic religious instruction, programs on abortion, and prayer to the Earth Mother--UNLESS THEY WANT TO.
You see? It's everyone's choice!
What YOU cretins mean is "Oh, no! Kids are going to be set free of the carefully-laid indoctrination program we concocted for them! It may delay our mind-control strategy for awhile longer!"
You people are so transparent; the little man behind the curtain has been exposed and everyone notices him now.
No, but when you ponder THEIR beliefs, and then go look at the percentage of the Jewish vote given to candidates who mirror those beliefs, and THEN you see that even in our post-9/11 world, they're content to continue in lock-step right down the same path...
"It don't take a weatherman to see the wind is blowin' the same ol' way."
Including vouchers which would allow Jewish families to send their children to yeshiva. Add to this the reluctance of ADL and liberal Jewish "federations" to support yeshivas because they are not "pluralistic" (PLURALISM=The new religion of Jews who don't like Judaism)
Since you can't have possibly read everything I've ever written, you'll have to take my word for it that I have. Except that I don't go out of my way to do so; pandering to politically-correct sentiment has never been my long suit.
2. The ADL is an out of touch institution. They are acting against the interest of Jews in America here.
You think so, and I think so, but I know first-hand how my own Jewish friends and acquaintances think, and I have always found it a bizarre exercise in cognitive dissonance.
3. Your response is type of BS that gives them ammo.
If you know nothing about me at all, surely you've learned that stirring the ant-pile and watching the ants run around mindlessly is kind of fun for me.
Ironically, the current Jewish leadership in Russia is far more conservative than the U.S. On his last trip to Russia, President Bush met with Jewish leaders of the Federation of Jewish Communities, and snubbed the old, KGB-appointed "Judenrat" which has been superseded by the FJC.
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