COMMENTARY: Florida’s school voucher plan means trouble

c. 1999 Religion News Service (Rabbi Rudin is the national interreligious affairs director of the American Jewish Committee.) UNDATED _ Florida Gov. Jeb Bush recently signed into law a school voucher program passed by the state Legislature. At first glance the new statute, the first such statewide program in the country, seems to be a […]

c. 1999 Religion News Service

(Rabbi Rudin is the national interreligious affairs director of the American Jewish Committee.)

UNDATED _ Florida Gov. Jeb Bush recently signed into law a school voucher program passed by the state Legislature. At first glance the new statute, the first such statewide program in the country, seems to be a parent’s dream: State money will help public school students pay tuition at private schools.


The law is aimed especially at parents whose children currently attend substandard public schools. Under the plan, Florida will contribute about $3,000 a year to a supposedly better private school for every youngster who transfers from an inferior public school. It sounds so worthwhile.

But while the Florida voucher statute appears at first blush to be a remedy for a serious problem, it actually creates many new problems. As soon as Bush signed the bill, it was challenged in court by a coalition of religious, educational and civic groups.

Critics charge the voucher plan seriously violates the Florida Constitution which specifically provides that”no revenue of the state … shall ever be taken from the public treasury directly or indirectly in aid of any church, sect, or religious denomination or in aid of any sectarian institution.”It also says,”Income derived from the state school fund shall … be appropriated only to the support and maintenance of free public schools.” Because the voucher money will be used for religious education and similar sectarian activities, it may violate the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

To receive state money, parochial and private schools must comply with prohibitions against discrimination based on race, color, or national origin. Schools that receive voucher money must”not compel any student … to profess a specific ideological belief, to pray or to worship.” Probable misuse of the funds boggles my mind because the law places no limitation on the uses to which schools can put voucher payments.

Interestingly, the voucher battle does not pit religion against anti-religion, nor one faith against another. While many Christians and Jews support vouchers, many equally committed Christians and Jews oppose them.

I fear that drawing precious funds away from already impoverished public schools will further weaken an educational system that desperately needs improvement. I also worry that the public schools’ historic role in building national unity out of an increasingly diverse American population will be seriously eroded. Financially strong and educationally sound public education is imperative to prevent America from becoming”balkanized”according to race, ethnicity, religion, creed or culture.

Sadly, the term”balkanization,”has recently taken on new meaning in the face of the sectarian and religious bloodletting in the former Yugoslavia.

In early 1998, long before the Florida voucher program became law, 25 prominent Christian and Jewish leaders sent a letter to President Clinton expressing their strong opposition to vouchers.


While pointing out that vouchers are unconstitutional, the leaders also warned Clinton that government entanglement with religious schools”inevitably ends in a loss of religious freedom and independence.” Included among the letter’s signatories were leaders of the American Baptist Churches, the Baptist Joint Committee, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Church of the Brethren, the Episcopal Church, the Friends Committee on National Legislation, the National Council of Churches, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Progressive National Baptist Convention, Swedenborgian Church, Unitarian Universalist Churches, the United Methodist Church, the American Jewish Committee, the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, the American Jewish Congress, the United Synagogue of America, the Jewish Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association, the Anti-Defamation League, the Rabbinical Assembly, the Jewish Council on Public Affairs, the Jewish Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association, and the Central Conference of American Rabbis.

Some theologically conservative evangelical Christians also oppose the voucher plan. They are fearful that once the state becomes involved in parochial and private education, especially through the use of public funds, religious liberty will be severely compromised.

In many places in both Florida and throughout America, the public schools are in bad shape and there is genuine concern about providing quality education. But an unconstitutional voucher plan is not the solution because it drains badly needed resources away from public schools and diverts our attention from confronting the real challenges facing public education in the new century.

DEA END RUDIN

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