Americans United Blasts Bush Administration For Report Urging More Tax Aid To Religious Schools

[and-justice-for-all]

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Keep Emphasis On Public Education, Says Church-State Watchdog Group

Americans United for Separation of Church and State today criticized the White House for issuing a report calling for massive new forms of tax funding of religious schools.

The 164-page report, “Preserving a Critical National Asset: America’s Disadvantaged Students and the Crisis in Faith-based Urban Schools,” was produced by the White House Domestic Policy Council. It calls for a sweeping plan of public subsidy of religious education through vouchers, tax credits and other forms of tax aid at both the federal and state levels.

“Government officials should focus on improving public schools, not subsidizing religious education,” said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United. “The American people want programs that boost public schools, not a bailout for private schools that are unaccountable to the public.”

The report calls for more voucher plans, blithely ignoring the fact that there is little public support for them and that objective research shows that existing voucher plans do not boost student performance.

Going further, the report also calls for “faith-based” charter schools that would advance religion. It offhandedly notes that such schools “would likely require a number of changes in Federal and State law” but fails to point out that rewriting the First Amendment would be among them.

“This report is the last gasp of an administration stubbornly convinced there is a ‘faith-based’ solution to every problem,” Lynn remarked. “Given the state the Bush administration is in, I expect the report to be quickly forgotten and that’s for the best.”

Lynn pointed out that 90 percent of American schoolchildren attend public schools. He said the next administration should stop obsessing over private education and return the focus to public education.

http://www.au.org/site/News2?abbr=pr&page=NewsArticle&id=10087&security=1002&news_iv_ctrl=1241