Americans United, ACLU Challenge New Hampshire State Funding Of Religious Schools

[Adsos Letter]

Source:
Americans United for Separation of Church and State
(Press Release)
Jan 9, 2013

Three civil liberties organizations filed suit today in Strafford County, N.H., Superior Court to challenge a statewide tuition tax-credit program that would subsidize private religious schools.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union, and the American Civil Liberties Union sued on behalf of eight plaintiffs, including clergy, public education advocates, and parents of public school children. They assert that the Education Tax Credit Program would divert taxpayer funds to religious schools in violation of the state constitution.

The program allows businesses to reduce their tax liability by receiving an 85 percent tax credit in exchange for donations made to K-12 scholarship organizations, which will pay for tuition at religious and other private schools. Since there will be no state oversight of the schools receiving scholarship monies, religious schools will be able to use the funds for religious instruction, indoctrination and discrimination.

The Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said, “This is just a backdoor voucher scheme. Whether it’s through a traditional voucher or a tax credit, the result is the same: Taxpayers are subsidizing religious instruction.”
https://au.org/media/press-releases/americans-united-aclu-challenge-new-hampshire-state-funding-of-religious?utm_source=AU+main+email+list&utm_campaign=d610bbc51d-2013-01-09+NH+Religious+Schools+Suit&utm_medium=email

Imho, support for any of the groups doing the heavy lifting on issues of Church/State separation is either time or money, or both, well spent.

EDIT: Seem to be having difficulty remembering to include the links this evening...

[cbayer]

1. These are really tricky and, from what I understand, no cases have been won

that challenge these scholarship tax credits.

Will be interesting to see how this one goes.