RELIGION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS–REALLY!!

The phrase “separation of church and state” has been used since the US Constitution was signed nearly 250 years ago. The Founding Fathers were fleeing from the Church of England and were obviously concerned about religious determination becoming the standard of governing for the colonies. Through the years courts have kicked around the First Amendment which cites “Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof….” . All court cases seem to have established the phrase we note as “the separation clause”. So as we enter 2024 we have various states changing the precedent by hanging the Christian Ten Commandments in the classrooms. And we have a push to allow tax monies to fund tuition in private religious-sponsored schools. We see this as just another desperate grab at a voter bloc that will cause the GOP to lose votes. First, the violation of the spirit and the letter of legal precedent will result in numerous groups filing suit and winning–unless the court is biased. Second, not all public school students are Christian. In fact, Christians make up only about 70% of US population numbers. Others generally do not ascribe to or follow the moral code of the Ten Commandments. Third, some parents will object to ANY form of religion because they are agnostics (they don’t care whether there is a God or not) or atheists who don’t believe there is a God. Fourth, it is a practical impossibility to divide up tax revenue based on the year-to-year parental choices. Facility funding, teacher movement, logistical support in general–all will be impossible to coordinate on a timely basis. (We have posted today in a separate section more on this aspect.) Fifth, the GOP is slyly trying to bribe private school parents into believing that tax revenue will lower their out-of-pocket costs so they will probably gain traction (votes) from that group. BOTTOM LINE: A DESPERATE ACT BY A DESPERATE POLITICAL PARTY HOPING TO WIN MORE VOTES THAN THEY LOSE. It just won’t work–and the GOP knows it.