BJC opposes President Trump’s executive order purporting to divert public money to private religious schools
The government should not compel taxpayers to furnish funds in support of religion, regardless of whether they adhere to that religion or not.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press Contact: Karlee Marshall | [email protected]
WASHINGTON – Today, President Donald J. Trump issued an executive order titled “Expanding Educational Freedom and Opportunity for Families.”
BJC Executive Director Amanda Tyler issued the following statement:
BJC adamantly opposes this executive order, which purports to divert taxpayer funds away from public schools and other federally funded programs to private schools, including to private religious schools. Students across the country rely on public schools as the only education system where their freedom of religion and other civil rights are guaranteed.
Public funds should be for public uses. The government should not compel taxpayers to furnish funds in support of religion, regardless of whether they adhere to that religion or not.
As people of faith, we celebrate our country’s freedom of religion and oppose attempts to entangle government in religious matters in this way. Religious education is best left to houses of worship and other religious institutions that are funded with the voluntary contributions of adherents of those faiths, free from federal funding and the accompanying strings.
The immediate impact of this order is unclear since the executive order requests plans from several different agencies where there are no federal school voucher programs.
This order does not advance the educational needs of our country but is another example of the Trump administration making a grab for power that puts specific private interests over public interest and violates our constitutional order.
For more from BJC on school vouchers, check out the following episodes of the Respecting Religion podcast from 2023:
S5, Ep. 08: The trouble with school vouchers
S5, Ep. 09: The trouble with school vouchers (part two)
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BJC (Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty) is an 89-year-old religiously based organization working to defend faith freedom for all and protect the institutional separation of church and state in the historic Baptist tradition. BJC is the home of the Christians Against Christian Nationalism campaign.
