Edd Doerr is the president of Americans for Religious Liberty and a strong proponent of separation of church and state. In this paper, he gives a brief overview of the history of this infra, explains why vouchers are a very bad idea, and reviews the 27 state referenda on vouchers or variant on public funds for religious schools.
Since his paper was written in 2012, a proposal to amend the Florida state constitution to permit vouchers (called the Religious Freedom Amendment) was defeated in 2012 by 55-45%, despite a vigorous campaign by Jeb Bush and Michelle Rhee on its behalf, and despite the deceptive tactic of asking voters whether they support “religious freedom.” This past election, voters in Oklahoma rejected a constitutional amendment that would “have stripped the provision in the state constitution that prevents public money or property from being used to support religion and religious institutions.”
Wherever vouchers exist, they have been authorized by state legislatures, never by voters. State legislatures are influenced by political contributions and are easier to manipulate than voters, as Dick and Betsy DeVos learned when their own state voucher proposal in Michigan went down to defeat in 2000.
In Doerr’s paper, he shows how voucher advocates ignore the Founding Fathers’ conviction about religious liberty. He cites Thomas Jefferson’s Virginia legislation called “A Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom.”*
Doerr quotes a section of the bill:
This Act ended legal compulsion to attend church services and barred tax support for religious institutions. It provide that “no man . . . shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burdened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or beliefs, but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge or affect their civil capacities.”
Doerr goes on to write:
While the Constitution drafted in 1787 did not grant the federal government power to deal with religion in any way, it proscribed religious tests for public office, and provided for an affirmation instead of an oath of office. The absence of a specific religious freedom guarantee bothered Jefferson and others. Six states ratified the Constitution but insisted on a religious freedom amendment. Rhode Island and North Carolina declined to ratify it until a bill of rights was adopted. Shortly after his election to the House of Representatives Madison introduced a compilation of proposals for a bill of rights to be added. Several versions of a religious liberty provision were considered before the following wording of what is now the First Amendment was adopted: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
President Jefferson, in a carefully thought-out 1802 letter to the Danbury Baptist Association, declared that these words built a “wall of separation between church and state.” Supporters of church-state separation hold that the “no establishment” clause was noted by the Supreme Court as early as 1878, but was best and most succinctly interpreted by the Supreme Court in the 1947 Everson v. Board of Education ruling. The Court stated:
“The ‘establishment of religion’ clause of the First Amendment means at least this: Neither a state nor the Federal government can set up a church. Neither can pass laws which aid one religion, aid all religions, or prefer one religion over another. Neither can force nor influence a person to go to or remain away from church against his will or force him to profess a belief or disbelief in any religion. No person can be punished for entertaining or professing religious beliefs or disbeliefs, for church attendance or non-attendance. No tax in any amount, large or small, can be levied to support any religious activities or institutions, whatever they may be called, or whatever form they may adopt to teach or practice religion. Neither a state nor the Federal government can, openly or secretly, participate in the affairs of any religious organizations or groups and vice versa. In the words of Jefferson, the clause against establishment of religion by law was intended to erect ‘a wall of separation between church and state’.”
So bear in mind as Trump and DeVos and others promote vouchers that would divert money from public schools to religious schools, they are at war not only with voters but with the Founding Fathers.
*Doerr cites the wrong date for passage of the bill in Virginia, which was 1779, not 1786.
Vouchers are a device for injecting market dynamics into a social organ where they act as a viral poison, quickly destroying its vital functions.
While it is quite true that no state has ever brought in a school choice plan through a referendum, it is also true that no state has ever voted [I]out[/I] a school choice program.
Here are some data:
Fast Facts on Vouchers
0. 1
Estimated voucher recipients in 14 states and Washington, D.C.: 174,380.
2
Vouchers gained national prominence in 1990, with the creation of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program. Two voucher programs existed prior to that (Vermont: 1869, Maine: 1873).
3
Ohio’s Income-Based Scholarships is the largest voucher program in terms of statewide income-based eligibility (60 percent of families with children).
4
Indiana’s Choice Scholarship Program is the nation’s largest voucher program in terms of participation (34,645 enrollees in 2016–17).
5
Douglas County, Colorado, is home to the only voucher program created by a public school district. Currently, it is not operating as litigation continues.
6
Washington, D.C., has the only voucher program authorized by the U.S. Congress.
7
Vouchers—specifically Ohio’s Cleveland Scholarship Program—were declared constitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2002 (Zelman v. Simmons-Harris).
(SOURCE: Ed Choice)
See https://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/lefts-legal-war-children
from the National Center for Education Statistics:
Enrollment
In fall 2016, about 50.4 million students will attend public elementary and secondary schools. Of these, 35.4 million will be in prekindergarten through grade 8 and 15.0 million will be in grades 9 through 12. An additional 5.2 million students are expected to attend private elementary and secondary schools (source). The fall 2016 public school enrollment is expected to be slightly higher than the 50.3 million enrolled in fall 2015. (END)
Only 174,380 families out of 50.4 million students will get vouchers. That is only about 0.3% of all school children in the USA.
The Supreme Court decided the constitutional issue in 2002. No one is at war with the founding fathers.
I can’t think of any state where the legislature has put on the ballot a referendum to get rid of school choice. The powerful can’t get vouchers without changing the state constitution in most states. Jeb Bush tried to do it in Florida and failed in 2012. Betsy and Dick DeVos tried to do it in Michigan in 2000 and failed by 69-31%. Why do you think a Republican legislature would allow the people of their state to vote on getting rid of school choice even though it is a miserable failure?
In 2007, voters in the state of Utah passed a referendum basically refusing to confirm a school choice program, passed by the legislature. See
http://www.nea.org/home/17956.htm
Utahns have consistently declined to support school choice, eight times between 1972, and 2007.
Many (not all) states have “Blaine amendments” which must be eliminated or repealed, before that state can exercise school choice.
Referenda are “pure democracy”, and some (not all) states have provisions for their citizens to amend their constitutions by referenda.
The Utah state legislature is about the most solidly Republican state legislature in the USA (except maybe Wyoming).
The Utah legislature passed the decision directly to the voters eight times between 1972 and 2007. The citizens showed their disapproval of school choice eight times. Most state legislatures have referendum provisions. And most individual legislators love the process, because it lets them “off the hook” for controversial decisions.
I know of no instance where any state legislature has employed the referendum method to shut down a school choice program. I do know that no voucher program has ever been shut down either by legislation nor by referendum.
Cemabf4y,
What a great example! Utah, where the Republican-majority keeps trying to change the state constitution to allow vouchers, and the public keeps voting NO. As you point out, the public has voted again and again against vouchers, and the public says no.
Then you say that no voucher program has been shut down by legislation or referendum. That is true, so far as I know, but in most states the referendum has to come from the legislature. Legislatures are rather easily purchased by Dark Money. Indiana is a good example of a state with an expansive voucher program created by the legislature, never submitted to a vote. The legislature is majority Republican. Unless the Democrats gain control of the state, the voucher program will never get on the ballot.
test, I am losing my imput
Cemab4y,
Since you flooded the blog, you are limited To one comment daily. If you calm down, you will get two or three. No more 12-20 a day
No state legislature has ever submitted a referendum to their citizens to dismantle an existing school choice program. (At least, I cannot find any).
Some (not all) states permit the citizens to collect signatures on a petition, and then when the minimum number is obtained, a referendum can go on the ballot in that state.
Only Wyoming and Indiana have no procedure in place for citizen initiative to amend their state constitutions.
Some (not all) states have procedures to pass legislation and/or amend their constitutions by citizen initiative (referenda). In California, it takes 5% of the registered voters to get a referendum (called a proposition) to the ballot. It takes 8% of the voters to get a constitutional amendment to the ballot.
The Emergency Manager Law in Michigan is one of the burglary tools that GoverNerd Snyder and his capitolist minions use to rob communities of local control. It is used to appoint emergency managers who abrogate the rights and duties of of elected city councils and school boards.
The voters successfully repealed this law by referendum, only to have the Legislature ram through a carbon copy of the very same bill, adding a phony appropriation rider in order to exempt it from future referenda.
Time and again the People demonstrate their will to maintain community control of public education, only to see the Corporate Church State spit in their face.
Has Betsy DeVos made any statement on what the Trump Administration will do for PUBLIC schools? I know she has an ideological and political preference for private and charter schools- maybe she isn’t aware public schools exist?
Seems odd for a future public employee to offer absolutely nothing to 90% of US schools. HUGE omission. Oversight on her part or hostility to public schools?
I know public schools are unfashionable in DC and ed reform circles but this is ridiculous.
I’m not really looking forward to paying thousands of federal employees to attack public schools.
So DC will spend the next year promoting vouchers after 8 years of solely focusing on promoting charters?
When do they get around to doing some work on behalf of kids in public schools? There are thousands of them. You’d think they could spare one or two employees to work with the neglected “public sector” schools.
The severest form of taxation without representation is taxing people for the support of religions they do not share. That is the main thing Betsy DeVos is about.
Wow, these people like DeVos are such extremists, it just takes your breath away. They are too rich and they have too much power.
Diane wrote: “State legislatures are influenced by political contributions and are easier to manipulate than voters…” How true. And this describes exactly the deep crisis of our “really existing” democracies, which can be quite different than the ideal of democracy which most people adore. When we look around in history and in the world, we find many different instantiations of this democratic ideal, some worse and some better than the democracy in the US or in Germany, my home country. A few examples from which could learn:
– In Switzerland, large political projects are decided upon by the voters, not the parliament. The voters leave the small decisions to the politicians.
– In France, anyone can participate in the primaries of the parties, not only people who have registered for that party. Voters do not need to register at all.
– Moreover, in these primariesthe voters pay a small fee for voting, so that the parties do not need to ask billionairs to subsidize and bias democratic procedures.
– In Colombia all top positions (major, governor and president) are directly elected by the voters, so that no other people and no big money needs to interve. The former major of Bogotá, Antanas Mockus had spent the equivalent of about 800 Dollars for his campaign, as he told me. Moreover, he made a single, simple promise: he promisted to raise taxes so the town could provide the services to its citizens which it is obliged to provide. He won by big margine. Citizens are not as dump as politician want us to believe.
Georg,
Thanks for these good examples.
The billionaires have jettisoned campaign finance reforms that would limit their influence. The DeVos family has contributed to this successful effort to enhance the power of their dollars.
We eliminated fees for voting because it discriminated against the poor and was racially discriminatory. It was called a poll tax and was struck down by our Supreme Court.
cross-posted at http://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/Edd-Doerr-The-Great-Schoo-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Diane-Ravitch_Education-Vouchers_Fraud_Manipulate-161204-676.html#comment633222
(This may a duplicate post, my computer is losing data)
You ask Q Why do you think a Republican legislature would allow the people of their state to vote on getting rid of school choice even though it is a miserable failure? END Q.
This is a bit confusing. In nearly all states which permit citizen initiative, the legislature is “out of the loop”. This ensures that the process is wholly controlled by the citizens.
In Utah, the legislature has passed several school-choice programs, and then submitted the proposed legislation to the citizens for approval or rejection. The citizens keep rejecting the proposed legislation and deciding to keep funding government-monopoly schools only, and declining their citizens any say in aiding parents who would opt out of the government schools.
This is as it should be. This is democracy.
The religious liberty objections, put forth by Mr. Doerr are bogus. The Supreme Court in Zelman V. Simmons-Harris (2002), put the issue to rest. It is perfectly constitutional for an individual to receive public money, and then to take that grant/voucher to purchase tuition at a religiously-affiliated educational institution. Else, a college student could not get a Basic Educational Opportunity Grant, and then attend Notre Dame (Catholic), or Brigham Young University (Mormon).
See:
https://www.oyez.org/cases/2001/00-1751
Individuals receive public money, and then spend these amounts at religious institutions, without violating the establishment clause. Example: You can get SNAP (food stamps), and then redeem them at a food pantry run by Catholic charities. No problem. You can get Medicaid, and then be treated at Mt. Sinai hospital (Jewish). You can live in Section 8 public housing, and host a Bible study at your apartment.
No one, who is supporting school choice, is at war with the voters nor with the Founding Fathers.
Cemayb4,
You have already left 5 comments and it is not even noon.
Technically correct. I had to break one up into sections, because the original was being rejected. If I could cram all the comments into one, I would.
I sincerely wish to keep comments within the limit you require.
You say you support the first amendment establishment clause (so do I).
Let’s see if you also support the first amendment free speech clause. Show me you have the courage to support free speech for thoughts you disagree with.
“People call me a reactionary. I am, There is a lot to react against” – Margaret Thatcher
@Diane- I wish to keep my comments under the limit you imposed. Problem is, long ones get rejected by the blog. Therefore, I had to break up the comments into shorter sections for posting. Please understand.
I enjoy this board very much! I am highly interested in all types of education. I even have a bucket list, that I could teach high school, after I retire from engineering.
Cemaby4,
I put your comments under moderation because you flooded the comments section for 2-3 days in a row. Every comment said the same thing: public schools suck, vouchers are great.
If you want to say anything different, you are welcome to participate.
You may count on it.I will say many other things. BTW- I enjoy this board very much. I want to be a public school teacher one day.