May 2016 Church & State - May 2015

Md. Legislature Passes Private School Voucher Program

  AU admin

Maryland legislators voted in March to approve a budget that includes $5 million in grants for low-income students who wish to attend private schools.

Gov. Larry Hogan (R) has indicated he will sign the bill. The proposal is the culmination of a decade-long attempt by voucher advocates to funnel public money to private schools.

Teachers unions had opposed the measure. Sean Johnson, who represents the Maryland State Education Association, told The Washington Post the group will continue to lobby against it.

“We’re hoping to make it a one-year bad idea and not a permanent bad idea,” he said.

Voucher bills had died in previous years in Maryland, but this year two Democratic lawmakers from Baltimore lobbied hard for the measure and apparently persuaded some opponents, including Senate President Thomas V. “Mike” Miller (D-Calvert), to change their minds.

Students will be able to use the funds for tuition at religious schools, which critics like Americans United deem a violation of the separation of church and state. 

BREAKING NEWS

Americans United & the National Women’s Law Center file suit to challenge Missouri’s abortion bans.

Abortion bans violate the separation of church and state. Americans United and the National Women’s Law Center—the leading experts in religious freedom and gender justice—have joined forces with thirteen clergy from six faith traditions to challenge Missouri’s abortion bans as unconstitutionally imposing one narrow religious doctrine on everyone.


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