Friday, April 11, 2008

Establishment Clause 

I am still hoping that an establishment of religion U.S. Supreme Court case arises out of a desire for Catholic schools in the district to continue teaching religion once they covert to charters. As I've pointed out in this space I believe that, based upon the precedent in the Zelman case, the Justices would say that this does not violate the separation of church and state. However, another establishment issue may beat me to the punch.

Theola Labbe of the Washington Post reports that as part of their application to the D.C. charter school board the Archdiocese of Washington has proposed using a non-profit charter school operator, Center City Public Charter Schools, to run the seven facilities undergoing the conversion. Center City would then pay the Archiocese rent to use their facilities.

All told we are talking about $14.5 million a year in public funds going into the church's bank account. Again, I argue that their is no constitutional infraction here because the money is simply following the child.

But it's difficult to believe that some group, like the ACLU, will not challenge this reasoning.

Life doesn't get much better then this.

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