Word: vouchers
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...nation under God? As apathy and low moral confidence spread, Americans are increasingly advocating a publicly funded return to conventional religion. This trend, especially as it takes form in the school voucher movement, raises significant questions about violations of the First Amendment's separation between church and state, particularly if religious teaching is approved in government-funded schools...
...school voucher system does not discriminate between religions as blatantly as Ontario's or Quebec's school funding does. Public scholastic funding is not distributed to any specific religious group. Vouchers may be used for the sectarian schools of any religion, or conversely, for private schools of no religious affiliation at all. However, complying with international guidelines for justice has never been our national priority, and particularly in this instance, the primacy of domestic introspection is justified...
...Voucher backers--an unusual coalition of inner-city parents and conservative groups--retort that the judge misread both the Cleveland program and the First Amendment. They point out that Cleveland parents who don't like parochial schools can send their kids to the city's regular public schools, or to public charter schools and magnet schools. Clint Bolick, a lawyer for the Institute for Justice, which defended the voucher program, says, "No one can compel a child into the program or into a religious school...
Despite its recent setbacks, the voucher movement is gaining ground in state legislatures and some state courts. This fall Florida started the first statewide voucher program. And the Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld the use of vouchers in parochial schools in Milwaukee. In the presidential campaign, G.O.P. candidates John McCain and George W. Bush are trumpeting voucher proposals. While Vice President Al Gore launched an ad that calls vouchers a "big mistake," his Democratic opponent Bill Bradley supports them, at least as "experiments...
Though the U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear several school-choice cases, legal experts suspect the more clear-cut Cleveland case might prod it into action. In the meantime, Judge Oliver is allowing Derrick Milancuk and nearly 4,000 other students in the Cleveland voucher program to remain in their schools while his ruling is on appeal...