Written by Don Byrd
The school voucher program in Indiana is growing rapidly, from just under 4,000 2 years ago to just under 20,000 this school year. That’s more than $80 million of public funds flowing to private education, including many religious schools. One dispute that has grown right along with it is the content of the science curriculum. Courts have well-established that public schools may not teach creationism or intelligent design as part of the science curriculum, because it improperly promotes religious beliefs that are unrelated to the science curriculum and the scientific method.
Private religious schools, however, are of course free to teach religious doctrine in the manner they see fit. But what about schools that are running on taxpayer money through the school voucher system? An Associated Press report indicates several Christian schools teach creationism and refuse to teach evolution, despite receiving public voucher money.
A second Fort Wayne school, Blackhawk Christian School, received more than $874,000 in vouchers this year for students enrolled at the elementary and junior-senior high school.
Mark Harmon, secondary principal at Blackhawk Christian, said the school teaches concepts of evolution but not as the only truth.
“We are respectful of other’s beliefs, but we do always fall back on the foundation of the Bible,” Harmon said. “We teach creationism.”
Voucher supporters, of course, argue the funds are coming from parents and not directly from the government, but that is money the taxpayer grants to parents specifically for the purpose of selecting a school. For many voucher opponents, including me, this is the kind of problem that counseled against school voucher schemes in the first place.
Once taxpayer money is entangled with a religious institution, it comes – or should come – with strings attached designed to safeguard necessary constitutional guarantees of church-state separation. Without those safeguards, voucher schools seek to have their cake and eat it too, raking in public funds while eschewing the public school mandate to keep religion out of the science curriculum.
