The Supreme Court Is Ready to Make Taxpayers Fund Religious Schools

[Galraedia]

The Supreme Court on Wednesday heard a case involving just 4,800 students in rural Maine. But because of the way the Court seems certain to rule, the case will affect everyone in America. The reason is a single word: discrimination.

On its face, the case, Carson v. Makin is an outlier. Maine has a unique system for students in far-flung rural areas: If there’s no public school available, then the state will pay around $11,000 to families toward private-school tuition, so long as the private school is not religious in nature. A consortium of right-wing organizations sued the state on behalf of two families who wanted to send their children to religious schools on the public dime. They argued that Maine’s policy amounts to anti-religious discrimination, a violation of the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause. And based on today’s oral arguments, they will win.

This result would have been unthinkable a decade ago. Until quite recently, state funding of religious schools was understood to be unconstitutional. Then, over time, it became permissible in the context of school-choice programs. Then, in 2020, in the case of Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, it became mandatory in such programs, since, the Court held, if the program included secular private schools, it had to include religious ones.

And now it looks as though it will be mandatory even for public-school-replacement programs like Maine’s, even if the schools in question require students to attend chapel, discriminate against LGBTQ students (or bar them from attending), teach religious dogma, and present all subjects (such as evolution) from a religious point of view — as the schools in the Maine case do.

Read more: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/12/supreme-court-ready-to-make-taxpayers-fund-religious-schools.html

[jimfields33]

8. I'd only allow them what they pay on their property taxes

That will show they don’t get a penny more.

[jimfields33]

10. Well they don't have them in the area these lawsuits are taking place

Not much choice.

[walkingman]

12. Isn't it the State's responsibility to provide public education for all of it's citizens?

[Hoyt]

2. What's the option in "far-flung rural areas" with no public schools?

I don’t like private schools — particularly religious schools — but not sure what options are available in far-flung areas.

I’ll read article later, maybe there’s an answer there.

[Deuxcents]

3. Of course they are.

Public schools have been competing w/ school choice n charter schools n on n on. This would not surprise me. Sign of the times w/ our current SC. I wonder if they’d ever make the same decision that was made w/ the Brown case in 1954.

[tirebiter]

13. The far flung isles of langerhans

Been hearing about them for about 50+ years. Still don’t know where they are

[mountain grammy]

4. Not the first ruling to divert public funds to religious entities

they're taking us down the religion rabbit hole at a pretty good clip. Not good.

[smirkymonkey]

23. What's even more frightening is that this is in New England.

If this holds up, the rest of the country is screwed. Rural ME is not exactly a hotbed of progressiveness, but still, this entire region should be safe from this kind of insanity.

[mountain grammy]

30. This, above all else, is the real push behind the dark money

and the insanity will spread..

[walkingman]

5. I hope Islamic schools open everywhere - we are not a theocracy.

[at140]

6. Please...no Madrassa's in USA

They are extreme religious teachings.
And no direct aid to Christian religious schools, unless there are no public schools in the area.

[walkingman]

11. I think that Christian school teachings are pretty extreme.

Indoctrination of children by conservative Christians to discriminate against LGBTQ people, women, religious minorities, and liberal Christians is extreme.

As far as the Carson v. Makin case -

In its own briefs, Maine highlights this problem by describing the policies at two schools that would presumably receive public funding if SCOTUS rules against the state, Bangor Christian School and Temple Academy. For instance:

• Bangor Christian School expels all students who identify as gay or transgender, or who display any gender-nonconforming behavior, on or off campus. Children who profess to be gay are expelled even if they swear to remain celibate.

• BCS compels all teachers to affirm that they are a “Born Again” Christian and an “active, tithing member of a Bible believing church.” It will not hire teachers who are gay, transgender, or gender-nonconforming.

• BCS explicitly denounces non-Christian faiths; in social studies class, for example, ninth grade students are taught to “refute the teachings of the Islamic religion with the truth of God’s Word.” All students are instructed that men serve as the head of the household.

• Temple Academy has a “pretty hard lined” rule against accepting non-Christian students. It will not admit students who are gay or transgender. Every student’s parents must sign a “covenant” affirming their opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage. Students must sign a “covenant” promising to glorify Jesus Christ and attend weekly religious services.

• TA rejects any student with same-sex parents, even if the student is not LGBTQ.

• To work at TA, instructors must acknowledge “homosexuals and other deviants” are “perverted.” The school only hires born-again Christians, even for custodial positions, and openly discriminates against LGBTQ applicants.

Bangor Christian School and Temple Academy have a right to practice these beliefs. But if SCOTUS forces Maine to fund these schools, it will tacitly suggest that such noxious ideas have an equal place in a secular, diverse world. The court would implicitly endorse the radical theory that states may not favor the teaching of tolerance over the inculcation of hate, bigotry, and Christian supremacy. To frame Maine’s refusal to fund a school like Temple Academy as “religious discrimination” is to demean the value of a secular public education.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/12/carson-makin-supreme-court-religious-liberty-public-education.html

[Bettie]

26. They are extreme and you can bet

that the second this becomes law, we'll find that a whole bunch of extreme "Christian" schools will open up in every state, demanding their share of the public school money.

The goal of a lot of right wingers is to destroy public education entirely.

[mountain grammy]

31. Exactly!

[at140]

32. Yes I agree, but at least one good thing in Christian schools is,

they do not teach killing non-believers. That is taught in some other religious schools.

[walkingman]

33. Of course it does, examples below. But the real issue is indoctrination (that is a lifelong issue)

Deuteronomy 13:6-11 - “If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son or your daughter or the wife you embrace or your friend who is as your own soul entices you secretly, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods,’ which neither you nor your fathers have known, some of the gods of the peoples who are around you, whether near you or far off from you, from the one end of the earth to the other, you shall not yield to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him, nor shall you conceal him. But you shall kill him. Your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. You shall stone him to death with stones, because he sought to draw you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

Deuteronomy 17:2-20 - “If there is found among you, within any of your towns that the Lord your God is giving you, a man or woman who does what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, in transgressing his covenant, and has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, or the sun or the moon or any of the host of heaven, which I have forbidden, and it is told you and you hear of it, then you shall inquire diligently, and if it is true and certain that such an abomination has been done in Israel, then you shall bring out to your gates that man or woman who has done this evil thing, and you shall stone that man or woman to death with stones. On the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses the one who is to die shall be put to death; a person shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness.

2 Chronicles 15:13 - "But that whoever would not seek the Lord, the God of Israel, should be put to death, whether young or old, man or woman."

And if anyone thinks that the New Testament is any better:

Luke 19:27 - "But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me."

[at140]

34. Wow you know your bible

I am not a Christian, so know almost nothing about it.

[walkingman]

36. I grew up in a Baptist family, attended Sunday School, and had a thorough

indoctrination by the church. I no longer believe in religion in general. For most of my life I felt guilty any time that I questioned God or the church's teachings.

I saw the racism perpetuated by the church in the 50's and 60's, the hypocrisy that is historically obvious, and in my mind finally said "this is about control by those that feel superior to others".

I personally think that religion has good points but in general is responsible for much of the division in our world. The "holier than thou" attitude perpetuated by many religions is repulsive to me.

[at140]

37. I am proud of Hinduism because

India (majority Hindu) tolerates all religions equally. India has one of the largest population of Muslims in the world, and has millions of Christians, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains, Zoroastrians, Bahai, Jewish, etc as well.

[multigraincracker]

14. Here we go. How would they like to pay taxes for one of these school?

Christian-Based Duotheism and Polytheistic Satanism . A minor sect of theistic satanism reported by Satanist Diane Vera is the Christian-based duotheism. Its practitioners accept that there is a on-going war between the Christian God and Satan, but unlike Christians, they support Satan.

[Jacson6]

7. OK. Now the State can dictate the religious teaching of private religious schools.

The first law is that the school may not teach hate speech.

[multigraincracker]

15. Second law....

May not discriminate against any "protected group".

[NullTuples]

22. Nope: Religious liberty no restrictions

We're in the midst of crossing that line where religious liberty has been granted a greater status than other people's non-religious liberty.

[tenderfoot]

16. Shouldn't Libertarians be outraged at such a thing?

Where's the Cato Institute?

[Mad_Machine76]

17. Nah

They're all too stoned to care.

[gab13by13]

18. Is it just for Christian religions?

Who determines if a school is religious? I read a lot of Buddhist books, if we are giving tax dollars to private schools I'm all for giving money to Buddhist monasteries.

If it's just money to Christiam schools isn't that also discrimination?

[Retrograde]

19. I wonder how many SC justices went to public schools

Sotomayor, probably; Thomas, maybe. Gorsuch and Kavanaugh are products of Jesuit high schools - the same one, iirc. Don't know about the others.

[Martin68]

20. Lookin' for a real tea party revolution?

[NowISeetheLight]

21. Then give taxpayers the choice...

… of where their property tax dollars go.

[secondwind]

24. This country is going to hell in a hand basket.

I can’t imagine what it will be like in 50 years.

[Celerity]

27. If we lose both the House and the Senate in '22 and '24, plus lose the POTUS in '24 as well, the

Union of the States will never hold for 15 to 20 more years, let alone 50, especially if it is Trump back in power to fire up the old bat shit crazy white nationalist and christofascist thematics, this time backed more strongly by the RWers in control of the levers of power.

[Vinca]

25. If we have to fund religious schools, then religious (so called) taxpayers have to fund abortions.

Assuming Roe survives and SCOTUS okays the Maine lawsuit, a case needs to be made for government funds for abortions. There will be precedent.

[JCMach1]

28. First Satanic School of Greater Bangor coming soon

[bluestarone]

35. My first thought!

[Boomerproud]

29. So unlimited taxation is fine as long as it's billions for the military

Industry and expensive schools but not for social welfare and infrastructure? Got it.😣😡