North Carolina judge: State’s school voucher program unfairly benefits religious schools

[DonViejo]

Source: Reuters

By Harriet McLeod

(Reuters) – A North Carolina judge on Thursday blocked the state’s new school voucher program, saying it unconstitutionally diverted money from public education to private schools, many of them religious.

The Opportunity Scholarship program, designed to give poor and middle-class families public funds to help pay private school tuition, was passed by the state’s Republican-controlled Legislature last year and had already begun operating.

School vouchers have drawn criticism from those who say they drain money from public schools and subsidize overtly religious education. Supporters say they offer parents more choices on where to educate their children. In his order blocking the program, Judge Robert Hobgood said it diverted money that under the state constitution can only be used for public schools.

Some of that money was going to private schools that discriminate based on religious affiliation, he added. Backers of North Carolina’s $10 million voucher program said they planned to appeal the ruling and would seek to reverse the judge’s order suspending the program as the case works its way through the courts.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/08/21/north-carolina-judge-states-school-voucher-program-unfairly-benefits-religious-schools/

[TheDebbieDee]

1. Good! No taxpayer $ for private/religious schools.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

2. No, really?

Although, admittedly, there are plenty of secular Republican grifters as well trying to scam public funding for shoddy and shady private schools.

[jwirr]

3. Good for him. My children went to a religious school but we paid for everything. The church paid

for the school and I remember paying $30 for books and supplies. I do not think that the state should pay for religious education. In later years, after my children were no longer in the school, our school did take money for the one special education student to attend and for science books.


Our school accepted the Iowa Education Standards, the states curriculum and had teachers who were graduated from certified teachers education colleges and certified by the state. There were other private schools in the area who had high school graduates for teachers. Their kids had trouble catching up when they transferred to the public high school.

[love_katz]

4. Great!

Now, let's hope the decision is enforced.

Take that, fundy fanatics!

[SoapBox]

5. I would lay odds, that it was a program designed exactly to do this.

How sad for the Crooks, Liars and Robbers hiding behind a cross and bible.

Not.