Should faith run schools receive government funding?

What do you think about religious, or faith-based, schools receiving government funding? Would you be in support of it, or object to it, seeing it as a violation of church/state?

It's in violation of separating church and state....so no, I can't co-sign it.

No way.

Chris wrote:What do you think about religious, or faith-based, schools receiving government funding? Would you be in support of it, or object to it, seeing it as a violation of church/state?

But it is NOT a violation of church/state. Just give funds to all of them and no violation! This Church/State thing is so laughable. The government isn't violating it when it tells Catholic Institutions what it has to pay for but it's violating it when it gives schools funds? lol The Church/State separation is just an imaginary thing the left uses to try and keep government from doing things they don't like and they'll regularly violate that same separation themselves when it's convenient. Separation of Church and State is just the left's excuse to practice discrimination.

HOWEVER, I don't think the national government should be giving money to school, period. Throwing more money at our schools isn't working now and hasn't in a long time. Government monies are a curse, if anything. If we got the fed government out of education, that'd probably be the first step in improving education in this country!

Alan Smithee wrote:No way.

Nystyle709 wrote:It's in violation of separating church and state....so no, I can't co-sign it.

Sure why not. I can be a modern day Joseph Smith or Charles Russell and start my own religion, complete with school. How long before the far-right-nut-jobs, who support vouchers. would begin to whine and look to change the law to exclude the school of The Great Satan Here and Now?

Not one cent.

Forgiveness Man wrote:But it is NOT a violation of church/state. Just give funds to all of them and no violation!

I thought conservatives wanted to CUT government spending. What is the economic justification for granting government funds to EVERY private school? Would Muslim schools also receive government funding? This notion is so ridiculous that I sure even if YOU think about it a little more you'd see why it doesn't make sense.

Forgiveness Man wrote:This Church/State thing is so laughable. The government isn't violating it when it tells Catholic Institutions what it has to pay for but it's violating it when it gives schools funds?

Exactly! And that is textbook.

Forgiveness Man wrote:lol The Church/State separation is just an imaginary thing the left uses...

Actually, let me stop you right there because it happens to be a very REAL thing that is referenced in the establishment clause of the First Amendment of the Constitution and historically reinforced by the US Supreme court under every administration, Republican and Democrat since 1947. So the idea that it is an "imaginary thing" is a false statement according to precedents set for the last 60 odd years. Okay, go on...

Forgiveness Man wrote:HOWEVER, I don't think the national government should be giving money to school, period. Throwing more money at our schools isn't working now and hasn't in a long time. Government monies are a curse, if anything. If we got the fed government out of education, that'd probably be the first step in improving education in this country!

This is perhaps the single most ridiculous and nonsensical thing I've ever heard anyone say (and are not joking) on this forum....no exaggeration!

1. The public education system cannot function without government funding. In fact, the government MUST provide funding towards public schools because attendance at school is compulsory in the United States. So it's not even optional that the government pay for school, it's actually mandated by law and required by the demands of our society.

2. The government has NOT thrown "more money" at our schools. It's thrown money at the education system (we are exaggerating exactly how big an increase this has been each year) in order to prevent it from collapsing! But the little bit of money that is added to the annual budget for education does NOTHING to actually improve the schools. The money supplements the increasing costs associated with cuts in state funding, increasing labor costs and lower tax revenues. Increased federal funding hasn't been used to "improve" the education system, it's been used to keep it from going under! If we got the Fed OUT of the education system, it would completely collapse nationwide in less than 6 months.

So your suggestion shows a fundamental lack of understanding concerning the US public school system AND the government in general!

Chris wrote:What do you think about religious, or faith-based, schools receiving government funding? Would you be in support of it, or object to it, seeing it as a violation of church/state?

It depends! Mostly on WHY the government has chosen to support this particular school. I don't exactly agree with Nystyle709 who suggested that such support is automatically a violation of the constitution. That's not necessarily true. Just to play Devil's advocate for a second (no pun intended), IF for example a Catholic school is receiving government funding because they also provide community services that benefit that surrounding neighborhoods, then they SHOULD qualify for government funding because they are providing a service to the community that is not faith based. The fact that they happen to be a "religious school" would be irrelevant in that case. Now, IF on the other hand the government was just supplying them funds for no reason, then that might become a violation of the constitution because this school is a private institution that is religious based. In order for it to be FAIR, like FM previously said, it would have to provide funding for ALL PRIVATE SCHOOLS, including faith based schools of EVERY religion. And that is NEVER going to happen! Even if the majority of Democrats supported that idea, not a single Republican in congress would vote in favor of it and very few Independents as well. So it's a completely unrealistic suggestion.

hmm. I'm pretty sure that the govt does give some funding to private, religious schools in Australa. The Idea being that the parents of these kids are still paying taxes, and these children are not in the public system (ie, alleviating the load of public education).

I don't have a problem with it, as long as the public schools get most of the funding

No

Faith schools shouldn't get money if only to keep them from turning into the trash heaps that every school that gets government money turns into! We all know that schools that get money from the government only do so if they follow the agenda. Why take money from the very thing screwing schools up?

Now of course, I know the left hates the idea of vouchers and would rather pay a heck of a lot more to educate kids in public school than to have them go somewhere that costs a fraction of the price. So yeah, we can't give families with limited finances any options. (They're the ones who really get screwed over by government.) But until the government changes it's ways, I suppose it's how we have to live. Let the government keep pouring our money into education in some futile effort to fix it. We'll keep faith-run schools away from their "help."