The Supreme Court rewarded religious schools. Maine lawmakers fought back. (OnlySky)

[eppur_se_muova]

by Hemant Mehta
June 29, 2022

Last week, the Supreme Court ruled that taxpayers in Maine had to cover the costs of private religious education even when Christian indoctrination was front and center. It was a horrible decision loudly derided by church/state separation advocates. But state lawmakers may have found a way to nullify its effects.

Carson v. Makin involved a voucher program that allowed students in rural parts of Maine to have access to free education, even if that meant attending a private school. The state already said it would cover private school tuition, even at church-run schools, as long as the education students received was secular in nature. But a lawsuit was filed by parents who wanted to send their kids to Christian schools that, among other things, promoted Creationism and discriminating against LGBTQ people in hiring. The Supreme Court essentially said the state was forbidden from discriminating against those schools on the basis of religion… which meant taxpayers would theoretically have to pay for religious indoctrination. As Justice Sonia Sotomayor put it in her dissent, “Today, the Court leads us to a place where separation of church and state becomes a constitutional violation.”

But here’s the amazing thing: Lawmakers in Maine anticipated this outcome a while back, and they recently took action to make the Supreme Court’s decision toothless—at least in their state. Simply put, rather than stick with the previous law that banned money from going to explicitly religious schools, which was already in legal jeopardy, they passed a new law forbidding any taxpayer dollars from going to schools that discriminate against people on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. (More specifically, they expanded their anti-discrimination law to protect LGBTQ people—including at schools that are part of the voucher program.)

See? No religion involved. And yet it forces the Christian schools at the center of this legal battle, Temple Academy in Waterville and Bangor Christian Schools, to make a decision about what matters more: taxpayer-funded tuition dollars or faith-based bigotry?

Both schools already told the Supreme Court that bigotry was vital to their mission and that they would not alter how they operate in order to receive public funding.
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more: https://onlysky.media/hemant-mehta/the-supreme-court-rewarded-religious-schools-maine-lawmakers-fought-back/

[duhneece]

1. Brilliant nt

[Maine Abu El Banat]

2. Just one more reason

To keep Maine blue. And send LePage back to Fla. Very proud of my state lately!

[The Wizard]

3. As long as the Church

is tax exempt there is no separation of Church and State.

[Ligyron]

4. The Church of Satan might otherwise wish to indoctrinate their youth.

Wonder how anxious the citizens of that or any state would feel about paying for that?

Of course, there are other more mainstream religions like ☪️ Islam who might want a chance to indoctrinate impressionable minds as well.

I wonder if mankind will one day outgrow the need to believe fairytales … sigh.

[Buckeyeblue]

5. Sadly it won't

The basic idea of death is too much for humans to process, so stories needed to be told about after-lives and rewards for a life well lived and punishment for those who are bad. What is good or bad in the context of these stories became a justification for stereotypes and bigotry.

Then the money. Those humans with an entrepreneur streak determined there was money in these stories and thus we have organized religion.

And so for the last couple hundred years people have paid portions of their hard earned money to an organization that promises them life after death and justifies their bigotry.

What a business model!

[paleotn]

7. Unfortunately, I think you're correct.

Humans have a real problem with death which religion helps assuage to a degree. Downside of "big brains."

[Hugh_Lebowski]

9. AGREE! The big lure of nearly all religions is the 'you can live forever through faith'

Whether it's heaven, reincarnation, or similar ideas, almost all of them proffer some kind of immortality.

At the most basic level, I think the allure comes from the fact that we evolved over hundreds of millions of years from ancestors who possessed strong will to LIVE. Were that not the case, we wouldn't be here.

So it's pretty logical (to me) that once a creature from this lineage became sufficiently intelligent and creative to conjure for themselves a 'means' by which they could 'never die', they went ahead and did just that.

And then people flocked to the organizations that offered these stories, in a form of group-think, where the more people that believed these stories, and got together to collectively 'believe them together' i.e. churches, the more 'real' it became to all of them.

There's also the fact that for MUCH of human civilization, so many things were not understood (germ theory, and the movements of the sun, planets, and stars (aka heavens) being good examples), and therefore life in general seemed WAAAAAY more random.

When everything seems random, it's much easier to impart 'magical' ideas of causality into the minds of the public, because damn near any given explanation COULD be true as far as they know.

[Tadpole Raisin]

6. If tax dollars are forced to go to religious schools then they must pay taxes.

You can’t be tax exempt, take federal or state tax payer dollars and then claim tax exemption.

How about some legislatures pass a law, not specifically mentioning religion as Maine smartly did, specifying that all groups, businesses, organizations that take tax payer funds are subject to paying taxes.

They clearly don’t want to pay taxes but want a piece of the pie.

Could such a law be carved out that might cause religious organizations to pause before they sue in an effort to get a case to the Supreme Court. So if they win a case they will have to pay too. They will never open up their books.

[paleotn]

8. If I have to pay for their indoctrination, THEY should have top pay for abortions....

Fuck the Hyde Amendment.

[Ilsa]

11. ⬆️⬆️⬆️⬆️ THIS ⬆️⬆️⬆️⬆️ !!! nt

[Karma13612]

10. Some good news!! Thanks!

👏🙋‍♀️🥰🎉

Now if Maine would only see the light and do the country a favor. Next chance they get, please don’t re-elect Susie “I’m very concerned” Collins.

Again, this is great news!!!

[in2herbs]

12. The legislature just passed a similar voucher law in AZ. If we could get a D majority in the

state legislature Az could reverse this course, too. The last news clip I heard was that $45 million was going to be siphoned off the public school funding and given to voucher schools -- heavy on religion. Since it's passage there was a news article claiming that parents with kids already in private school have applied for these vouchers are are getting the $$, even though it was intended for new students. For some parents it amounts to a $7,600/year additional income to home school at home.

I am totally against vouchers. If a parent wants to send their child to a private school they must pay full freight. Some people on DU support private/voucher schools and if they were held to the same standards as public schools I'd be for them, but in AZ there is no learning accountability by the state involving these voucher schools. I know several parents who home school and their kids are dumb as a board but they get free $$ to keep their kids home and can control their socialization.

[lindysalsagal]

13. How can such a smart state keep electing Susan Collins??????????

[crickets]

16. Good for Maine. Other states should take note. K&R