You may have heard about the Christian school which expelled a girl because it found out that her parents were lesbians. The girl didn't do anything wrong, but as a private school they can expel any student for any reason. I suppose that even if she had straight parents, she could have been expelled had her parents supported equal rights for gays. Do you want voucher money going to such schools?

American United explains that that’s just what would happen under standard voucher schemes:

[T]his incident should remind everyone why public funding of these institutions is absolutely inappropriate. Unlike public schools, religious schools have the right to engage in rank forms of discrimination; the taxpayer should never be expected to subsidize that.

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, President George W. Bush and his congressional allies are proposing a $488-million voucher plan for displaced students. They made this ideologically drive proposal even though numerous public schools indicated their willingness to take in students made homeless by the storm.

If implemented, this scheme will force everyone who pays taxes to under write schools like Ontario Christian High and others that deny admission to members of the “wrong” faith or parents accused of making the wrong lifestyle choices. (In addition, these schools impose the same conditions on those they hire – meaning taxpayers could be forced to subsidize schools that won’t even consider hiring them.)

The government can, of course, impose conditions on any schools which accept voucher money — for example, prohibit discrimination on the basis of things like race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, etc. We all know that won’t happen because the current religious administration is attempting to remove just those sorts of restrictions from the places where it already exists. According to the Christian Right, it’s discriminatory for the state to only fund programs which don’t discriminate. That will, by logical extension, make it mandatory for the government to fund the most bigoted, discriminatory, and exclusionary groups in the nation.

 

Quick Poll: Do you think that the government should finance a school voucher system which gives money to private schools?

1. Yes, even if the money goes to religious schools
2. Yes, but only if the money does not go to religious school
3. No, not under any circumstances
4. I don't know / don't care

View Current Poll Results

 

Read More:

• Separation of Church and State 101
• Church and State News
• Religion in Public Schools
• Secularism 101