In unprecedented move, Ohio is funding construction of private religious schools

https://www.propublica.org/article/ohio-taxpayer-money-funding-private-religious-schools

by keiran_cull • 2 years ago

36 19 2 years ago

For those who are more knowledgeable: is this bait for a conservative SCOTUS decision a few years down the road and/or do these legislators think state government should directly fund religious (educational) organizations?

If the latter, I doubt the legislators would support funding non-Christian schools, so it’s bald-faced hypocrisy at best? I’m having difficulty understanding how someone rationalizes appropriating government funds for religious institutions.

olliej4• 2 years ago

they're a bunch of pro-child abuse bigots, so of course its hypocrisy.

polotics• 2 years ago

  You wrote, and I quote exactly:

"""they're a bunch of pro-child abuse bigots, so of course its hypocrisy."""

  I am sorry but your swipe there is so unwarranted and low effort, that it looks more like it's coming from a provocation plant trying to give liberals a bad name.

Also for the record, I am pro-child!

trilbyglens• 2 years ago

Goes to show that America's reticence towards social programs is not ideological, but rather simply partisan. They are happy to socialize the regressive religious bullshit that they approve of.

quantified• 2 years ago

A list of examples should be easy to provide.

olliej4• 2 years ago

I love tax dollars funding religious indoctrination, by an untaxed organization that has billions, if not trillions, of dollars of wealth even though the first amendment explicitly prohibits it.

I also love that these bigoted assholes claim to care about children while bankrolling an organization that actively promotes child abuse, suppresses evidence of said abuse, blames the child victims, uses bankruptcy (despite aforementioned wealth) to avoid any liability, and then claims that not reporting child abuse is a requirement of their religion so is protected by the same first amendment that prohibits this funding.

Eddy_Viscosity22• 2 years ago

Don't forget that they are also tax-exempt.

olliej4• 2 years ago

My feeling is that tax payer funded subsidies for businesses should come with a 100% tax rate. Any “profit” gained while receiving subsidies is literally just a redistribution of wealth from average tax payers to the wealthy. Ie another case of socialism for the rich capitalism for the poor.

downvotetruth• 2 years ago

So, court case probably gets to be brought by Ohio Education Association union as plaintiff as they are losing out on the funding to invalidate the budget as unlawful according to the Ohio constitution?

2four2• 2 years ago

"courts have long given voucher programs a pass, ruling that they don’t violate the constitutionally mandated separation of church and state because a publicly funded voucher technically passes through the conduit of a parent on the way to a religious school."

Oh wow, I didn't realize all it took to break the law was a middleman. This is why intent of law matters, not just the letter of it.

basementcat• 2 years ago

My understanding is the "separation of church and state" is at the federal level; states may be free to establish their own religious institutions if their state constitutions permit it. Perhaps the relevant part of the Ohio constitution is Article 1, Section 7.

https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-constitution/section-1.7

sbelskie• 2 years ago

Not since the 14th amendment, no?

bravetraveler• 2 years ago

See also, government and data collection. It's technically okay if they pay for it.

Technically correct is not the best kind, fight me

Eddy_Viscosity22• 2 years ago

I didn't realize all it took to break the law was a middleman

You might have meant this sarcastically, but using a middleman is exactly how many laws are routinely side-stepped (broken). It turns out that this is a crazily effective technique.

TheNewsIsHere• 2 years ago

“What do you do?”

“PLEASE”

benmmurphy• 2 years ago

As long as both secular and non-secular schools are eligble for vouchers in both law and practice then that is fine. You could imagine a situation where they have vouchers 'available for all' but in practice there is some kind of bureaucracy that only allows vouchers to be eligible for religious schools. If the state prevented religious schools from taking vouchers then arguably that is violation of the separation of church and state because they are punishing religious people.

jmclnx• 2 years ago

I just see this as a move to a new way to invalidate LBJ's Civil Rights Law(s).

Many white people do not want little Suzie to be exposed to "the other kind of people". I know many people who struggle financially to send their kids to religious schools because they say Public Schools are bad. None of them even goes to any kind of Church. Plus these schools are no better that the Public Schools in their town.

So to me, this is all about discrimination.

In unprecedented move, Ohio is funding construction of private religious schools

Related Stories