The purpose of school vouchers is to get kids out of bad schools and introduce competition between the public and private school systems.
I believe in a strong separation of church and state, but if a religious organization runs a charitable or non-profit hospital or school or other human service facility and sets it up so it is completely distinct from their religious function, I think there is no reason to treat the distinct human service facility exactly the same as a human service facility run by non-religious groups.
Separation of church and state means that the government doesn't support religion in any way, it doesn't mean that secular subsidiaries of the religious organization should be penalized.
It's a fine line, I will grant you, but it's also a bright line.
These facilities must adhere to the following rules:
* They may not use direct government funds to support inherently religious activities such as prayer, worship, religious instruction, or proselytization.
* Any inherently religious activities that the organizations may offer must be offered separately in time or location from services that receive federal assistance.
* FBOs cannot discriminate on the basis of religion when providing services (GAO 2006:13[3]).
As an example, which long predates this presidency, in Baton Rouge a group of Catholic nuns runs Our Lady of the Lake Regional Hospital, and accepts Medicaid and Medicare. You don't have to be Catholic to be a patient there. They have spiritual care available if you want it, but the people who give it are unpaid volunteers, and if you don't want it, they won't force it on you.
I don't see how this violates separation of church and state. |
