Written by Don Byrd
Georgia has recently joined a growing list of states with a controversial school funding program that funnels public money to private and religious institutions in the form of tax credits.The NYTimes reports that the scheme, which is essentially a voucher program, is funding schools that discriminate in ways public schools never could.
Steve Suitts, the vice president of the foundation and the author of the report, said that as many as a third of the schools in the scholarship program have strict antigay policies or adhere to a religious philosophy that holds homosexuality as immoral or a sin.
As a result, his report says, public money is being spent by private educational institutions that “punish, denounce and even demonize students in the name of religion solely because they are gay, state that they are homosexual, happen to have same-sex parents or guardians, or express support or tolerance for gay students at school, away from school or at home.”
Public and private schools are fundamentally different in ways we should seek to preserve, not blur through funding schemes. Private schools have every right to teach religious beliefs, and even to indoctrinate students, but public money should not be used to enforce religious beliefs at the expense of some students. Americans United has more.
