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mahatmakanejeeves

(56,897 posts)
Thu Dec 9, 2021, 08:53 AM Dec 2021

The Supreme Court Is Ready to Make Taxpayers Fund Religious Schools

Hat tip, Joe.My.God.


POLITICS DEC. 8, 2021

The Supreme Court Is Ready to Make Taxpayers Fund Religious Schools

By Jay Michaelson

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.

{snip}
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DownriverDem

(6,206 posts)
1. Canada
Thu Dec 9, 2021, 08:58 AM
Dec 2021

does it. I don't agree, but they have done it for a long time. I live in SE Michigan not far from Windsor Ontario.

Omnipresent

(5,622 posts)
2. Geez, it sounds like the right might...
Thu Dec 9, 2021, 09:00 AM
Dec 2021

Not do so well in the midterms next year. The supreme court seems to be creating “Wedge Issues” for Democrats to win on.

JohnSJ

(91,965 posts)
3. I am skeptical that will necessarily translate to votes. In 2016 it was very clear that the Supreme
Thu Dec 9, 2021, 09:07 AM
Dec 2021

Court was at stake, and that didn't work out well for us at all

Omnipresent

(5,622 posts)
6. Trump's appointees are pissing people off in middle.
Thu Dec 9, 2021, 09:32 AM
Dec 2021

They have gone too far to the right, for most Americans.

Colgate 64

(14,732 posts)
11. You're absolutely right. The vast majority of voters don't pay any
Thu Dec 9, 2021, 11:25 AM
Dec 2021

attention at all to what the Supremes decide. Those motivated by religious zealotry get excited about repealing Roe v Wade (pretty much a foregone conclusion) but as to more esoteric issues like government funding of religion you get a blank stare. If we're planning on winning in 2022 by using this type of "wedge issue" get ready to welcome Speaker McCarthy.

JohnSJ

(91,965 posts)
13. Also a huge challenge for us in the House is the redistricting that is favoring republicans
Thu Dec 9, 2021, 11:40 AM
Dec 2021

in purple states


no_hypocrisy

(45,774 posts)
4. Funds for public education are already depleted by the mandate of funding
Thu Dec 9, 2021, 09:12 AM
Dec 2021

charter schools.

If public schools lose more money to religious schools, it will be near impossible to continue with the future of education in the public sector. Or was that the plan all along?

Taxpayers already complain about their property taxes being too high. Getting another increase to fund a stipend for religious schools isn't going to happen.

moose65

(3,164 posts)
8. "Defund the Schools"
Thu Dec 9, 2021, 09:59 AM
Dec 2021

How come that slogan has never stuck to Republicans? It's what they do in every state they control.

randr

(12,408 posts)
5. We need a tax revolt
Thu Dec 9, 2021, 09:26 AM
Dec 2021

It has always pissed me off that religious parties have made it so that the "government" can not fund abortions due to their private objections. I feel the same way about war, religious schools, and a whole host of hand outs to polluting industries.
It is time we raise our voices loud and clear that we will not fund anything we find against our beliefs.

Ilsa

(61,675 posts)
7. How will this work if Islamic and Jewish schools start popping up with
Thu Dec 9, 2021, 09:57 AM
Dec 2021

their hands out for funding? In my neck of the woods, Hindi schools would be next door to nearly every elementary school. I suppose RWers would welcome knowing where they are so they could terrorize them.

brewens

(13,400 posts)
9. There was a girl from Liberty University on Jeopardy a couple years ago. In the first round there
Thu Dec 9, 2021, 10:13 AM
Dec 2021

was a Bible category. She ran the table on that and had a huge lead. Really lucky for her. I thought maybe the fix was in, but I'm told there are religious categories every once in awhile.

That first round was about it for her. The two guys from major universities smoked her the rest of the way! I would have crushed her too, and I'm a pretty good nickel knowledge guy, but I get my ass kicked by the Jeopardy test on the Web site. She had no business being on that show. There is no chance she could have gotten on as a regular contestant. She was only on because it was a college edition and they invited Liberty.

Where are all these religious school kids going to work, doing what? There will only ever be so many churches, religious schools and Bible shops.

mahatmakanejeeves

(56,897 posts)
10. Conservative justices scoff at Maine's exclusion of religious schools from tuition-assistance
Thu Dec 9, 2021, 10:15 AM
Dec 2021
ARGUMENT ANALYSIS

Conservative justices scoff at Maine’s exclusion of religious schools from tuition-assistance program

By Amy Howe on Dec. 8 at 4:42 p.m.

During oral argument on Wednesday, a majority of the court signaled support for parents who want to use state funds to send their children to religious schools.

{snip}

This article was originally published at Howe on the Court.

Posted in Featured, Merits Cases

Cases: Carson v. Makin

Recommended Citation: Amy Howe, Conservative justices scoff at Maine’s exclusion of religious schools from tuition-assistance program, SCOTUSblog (Dec. 8, 2021, 4:42 PM), https://www.scotusblog.com/2021/12/conservative-justices-scoff-at-maines-exclusion-of-religious-schools-from-tuition-assistance-program/
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