By BJC Staff Reports
The Baptist Joint Committee joined a friend-of-the-court brief in the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to stand against taxpayer money being funneled to religious education.
The case involves a special needs student in Maryland whose parents want him to receive instruction in Judaism in addition to his public school education. The school district included several religious accommodations in the child’s individualized education program but refused to affirmatively teach the child on topics such as kashrut, reciting prayers, keeping Shabbat and reading the Torah.
“[T]he choice to provide secular education, whether general or special, does not give rise to a duty to provide parallel religious education,” asserts the brief.
The BJC joined Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Central Conference of American Rabbis, Union for Reform Judaism and other groups in the brief for the case, known as Leiman v. Bowers.
From the April 2016 edition of Report from the Capital. Click here to view the issue as a PDF document.
