In the state of Montana, there are 13 private schools, and 12 of them are religious (one of them being for children with learning disabilities.) It is stated it the article that: "94% of the scholarships went to religious schools." Makes sense right? All the school except for one are religious, so majority of the scholarships will go to those schools. It is soon then stated in this article that: "Soon after the program started, a state agency said students attending religious schools were not eligible in light of a provision of the state's Constitution that bars the use of government for 'any secretion purpose or to aid any church, school, academy, seminary, college, university, or other literary or scientific institution, controlled in whole or in part by any church, sect or denomination.'" After this statement and program had been put into motion, three mothers joined forces and sued the supreme court of the state stating that the provision of the state's Constitution violated the protections of religious freedom guaranteed by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.
So, what happened in this court case? Well, the Montana Supreme Court ruled against them, shutting down the entire program that was put into place for ALL schools. They both went to court, most of the disagreements were predicted: These families want separation of church and state, and the supreme court sees no sign at all of them being involved in religious private schools in the state of Montana. However in the end, the supreme court won the case as their lawyer stated: "There is no discrimination at this point going on."
Overall, should the religious private schools in this country be separate from the government? Or should they have equal opportunity like public schools around the country do? That is up for the reader to decide.
Source: The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/22/us/supreme-court-state-aid-religious-schools.html (article published on Jan. 22, 2020 by Adam Liptak.)
No comments:
Post a Comment