Bush established an Office Of Faith-Based Initiatives with the goal of subsidizing social programs administered by sectarian religious groups. several cities and states have set up similar programs, including Florida, with so-called "faith-based partnerships," diverting tax money to houses of worship and religion-affiliated organizations. The Bush inititiative would expand the scope and cost of these programs and seriously erode the separation of church and state. this initiative shows up even uglier when it includes school funding in the form of "vouchers" as used by our own Florida "Governator" in his program for universal Pre-K.

Universal Pre-K is great, but it belongs in PUBLIC schools!!!

FLORIDA'S "GOVERNATOR" STORY SUN SENTINEL:
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/florida/sfl-fprek29jan02,0,2486020.story?coll=sfla-news-florida

STORY ABC NEWS:
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=379586

The nuts don't fall far from the tree. Apparantly the entire family is caught up in the ideal of changing our government from a non secular one to a christian based one.

Originally posted by Rolader
this initiative shows up even uglier when it includes school funding in the form of "vouchers"

The vouchers are given to people to use in any school they want. Leaving it up to parents makes the government neutral on the issue. To deny certain choices actually violates the separation more than allowing free choice

Originally posted by Brooks
The vouchers are given to people to use in any school they want. Leaving it up to parents makes the government neutral on the issue. To deny certain choices actually violates the separation more than allowing free choice
Nobody's denying parents access to private schools. If you have the money, more power to you. In fact, budget-permitting, the government should offer a tax break to parents with all their kids in private school (as well as any other people who do not have children in the public school system) so the parents are not paying for a service they are not taking advantage of. Having the government spend money to send a kid to private school, however, is a misuse of funding. That money should be going towards improving public schools.

Originally posted by BorgHunter
Nobody's denying parents access to private schools. If you have the money, more power to you. In fact, budget-permitting, the government should offer a tax break to parents with all their kids in private school (as well as any other people who do not have children in the public school system) so the parents are not paying for a service they are not taking advantage of. Having the government spend money to send a kid to private school, however, is a misuse of funding. That money should be going towards improving public schools.

Great post. You are right on.