Tag: separation of church and state at risk

The High Court Takes on School Choice

A decision in the case has seismic implications not just for schools and the Constitution but for the Trump administration’s No. 1 education priority.

WHEN THE SUPREME COURT hears oral arguments Wednesday concerning a decision by Montana’s Supreme Court to halt the operation of a tax credit scholarship program, the justices will face a debate that’s been roiling the nation for 200 years – namely, whether public funds can flow to religious schools.

A decision either way is set to have seismic implications, not just for states and their public school systems but also for the fate of the Trump administration’s No.1 education priority: a $5 billion tax credit scholarship. It could also serve to cement the president in the good graces of his important evangelical Christian base ahead of the 2020 election, or not.

“If this decision goes in a certain way it will be a virtual earthquake in terms of religious liberty and public education in this country,” says Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers. Continue reading.

Don’t let bigoted campaigns sour you to the revolutionary idea of religious freedom

AlterNet logoOn January 16 we celebrate Religious Freedom Day to commemorate what may be the most revolutionary and liberatory idea in the history of civilization. It was the reason many joined the American Revolution. It’s the first freedom in the First Amendment. But despite all this, we as a society have forgotten or taken its power for granted.

Religious freedom was the idea behind legislation in 18th century Virginia that overthrew the tyrannical Anglican Church, which had functioned as an often brutal arm of the British Empire. Historians and the Supreme Court have considered the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom to be the forerunner to the approach taken by the Framers of the Constitution and of the First Amendment regarding the right relationship between citizens, government, and powerful religious institutions.

Still, as important and transformational as it was in our history, we will probably not hear much about it this Religious Freedom Day—the Day designated by Congress to commemorate it. This may be because most everyone to the left of the Christian Right has taken religious freedom for granted allowing its meaning to fade and knowledge of the underlying principle to atrophy. Continue reading.