Endless Efforts to Undermine Public Education

Edd Doerr

Article XI, Section 10 of the Nevada constitution: “No public funds of any kind or character whatever, state, county, or municipal, shall be used for sectarian purposes.” 

But as noted in the article Nevada Taxpayers File Motion to Immediately Stop Implementation of SB 302 SB 302 proposes a voucher program that "

"uses public money for religious instruction and other religious functions and activities at religious schools, in violation of this strict constitutional prohibition. With over a century of Nevada precedent and Nevada Attorney General opinions, the motion makes clear that voucher program funds are public funds. Any pass-through bank account for funds that the state continues to own and control is a fiction that does not alter the public character of the funds."

“The Nevada taxpayers in Duncan are standing up and asking the Court to immediately block implementation of this unconstitutional program. SB 302 funds private religious indoctrination, and funds private religious schools which operate with discriminatory admissions policies, all at the expense of the existing system of public schools and public instruction. This directly contravenes the Nevada Constitution and more than 130 years of state-law precedent,” said Amy M. Rose, ACLU of Nevada legal director.

Let’s hope that the above mentioned ACLU lawsuit is successful and that the state courts are more attentive to the state constitution than the nose-thumbing Republicans who dominate the legislature, unlike the disgraceful Indiana supreme court.

These attacks on public education, church-state separation, and religious liberty have been led for decades by Republicans in state legislatures and Congress for decades. 

See Edd Doerr's column titled “Public Education under Siege” in the current issue of Free Inquiry. 

Also, Americans for Religious Liberty has been reporting and analyzing this issue for 34 years. See ARL’s web site – arlinc.org.

Republicans in their endless efforts to undermine public  education seem oblivious to the 50 years of state referenda and opinion polls showing that Americans oppose diverting public funds to sectarian and other private schools by 2 to 1.

REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE - A UUA statement

Edd Doerr notes that the the Unitarian Universalist Association have releases a statement issued  , approved by the UUA General Assembly in late June --- 2015 UUA Statement of Conscience - Reproductive Justice. ARL board member Ken Sandin was a delegate at the General Assembly in Portland, OR,  this year.

The UUA has long been supportive of reproductive choice and was involved from the beginning in 1973 with the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, on whose board I served from1973 until 2004.

By the way, in 1982 I was the author of the UUA General Assembly resolution on “Public Education, Religious Liberty and the Separation of Church and State”, which passed unanimously. Below are the relevant sections  ---

“Whereas, the constitutional principles of religious liberty and the separation of church and state that safeguards liberty and the ideal of a pluralistic society are under increasing attack in the Congress of the United States, in state legislatures, and in some sectors on the communications media by a combination of sectarian and secular special interests;

“Be it resolved: That the 1982 GA of the UUA  affirms its support for these principles and urges the Board of Trustees and President of the Association, member societies, and UUs in the US to:

“1. Defend the democratic, pluralistic public school, opposing all forms of direct and indirect public aid to support sectarian private schools, such as tuition tax credits or vouchers;

“2. Uphold religious neutrality in public education, oppose all government mandated or sponsored prayers, devotions, and religious indoctrination in public schools; and oppose efforts to compromise the integrity of public school teaching by the introduction of sectarian religious doctrines, such as ‘scientific creationism,’ and by exclusion of educational matter on sectarian grounds.

“3. Uphold the principle of judicial review, and oppose all efforts to deny the federal courts jurisdiction  over school prayer, abortion rights, or other church-state disputes.

“4. Uphold the principle enunciated by the US Supreme Court that all levels of government must remain respectfully neutral with regard to all religions.

“5 Uphold the constitutional privacy right of every woman, acknowledged by the Supreme Court in 1973 in Roe v. Wade and other rulings, to plan the number and spacing of her children and to terminate a problem pregnancy in collaboration with her physician, opposing all efforts through legislation or constitutional amendment to restrict that right or to impose by law a ‘theology of fetal personhood’; and

“6. Support all efforts to preserve and strengthen church-state  separation.”

[NOTE: In 1981 humanist leaders Edward Ericson and the late Sherwin Wine founded Americans for Religious Liberty. In 1982 was asked to be ARL’s executive director. ARL’s positions match those of the UUA resolution. All issues of ARL’s quarterly journal and other material may be accessed on our website – arlinc.org. ARL appreciates the support of all who share these positions.]