PRAY TODAY FOR SCOTUS --THAT THEY WILL HAVE DIVINE GUIDANCE AND COMMON SENSE REGARDING THE 9th Circuit Court's bad decision BEING PRESENTED THIS MORNING AT 9:30 am!
Read all about it at the link above, but here is an excerpt with my emphases in bold and inserts in brackets added:
The case concerns an Arizona school choice program that has been serving low- and middle-income families for 13 years. The state grants a tax credit to individuals who donate to nonprofit entities that award scholarships for children to attend private schools -- including religious schools. Yes, here we go again. [OHIO NEEDS SUCH A PROGRAM. We all have federal income tax deductions for donations to religious schools --but not tax credits--and no deduction for our own children's tuitions even though we ALSO fund the public schools.]
The question -- if a question that has been redundantly answered remains a real question -- is whether this violates the First Amendment proscription of any measure amounting to government "establishment of religion." The incorrigible 9th Circuit has declared Arizona's program unconstitutional, even though there is no government involvement in any parent's decision to use a scholarship at a religious school.
Surely this question was settled eight years ago in a decision that was the seventh consecutive defeat for the disgustingly determined people who are implacably opposed to any policies that enable parents who are not affluent to exercise the right of school choice that is routinely exercised by more fortunate Americans.It sometimes takes time for news of the outside world to penetrate San Francisco, where the 9th Circuit is headquartered, but surely by now that court has heard that in 2002, in a case coming from Cleveland, the Supreme Court upheld a program quite like Arizona's but arguably more problematic.
It was created after Cleveland's school district flunked 27 -- out of 27 -- standards measuring student performance, and the state declared the district an "academic emergency." The [Ohio] program empowered parents to redeem publicly funded vouchers at religious as well as nonreligious private schools...
...The Supreme Court has been splitting and re-splitting constitutional hairs about this for decades, holding, for example, that it is constitutional for public funds to provide parochial school pupils with transportation to classes -- but not to field trips. To provide parochial schools with nurses -- but not guidance counselors. To provide religious schools with books -- but not maps. This last split-hair caused the late Sen. Pat Moynihan to wonder: What about atlases, which are books of maps? The court has ruled that public funds can provide a sign language interpreter to a deaf child at a religious school and can provide rehabilitation assistance at a religious college.
The court has held that a state can offer tax deductions to parents paying tuition to religious schools. [REALLY? I believe Ohio doesn't have such a deduction.] Can the 9th Circuit see a pattern here?
Scores of thousands of children have benefited from Arizona's scholarship program, which, unlike Cleveland's, does not involve any government funds that might otherwise go to public schools. Rather, Arizona's program infuses substantial additional funds into the state's K-through-12 educational offerings. Democracy demands patience. In its political discourse, repetition is required because persuasion takes time. But the Supreme Court should not have to cajole lower courts into acknowledging its rulings. This term, the court has issued 11 summary reversals. Thursday morning it should use its 12th on the 9th Circuit, a slow learner.
"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible
1 comment:
We all have federal income tax deductions for donations to religious schools --but not tax credits--and no deduction for our own children's tuitions even though we ALSO fund the public schools.
...in your World of Delusion, your Christofascist America
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