And it is really not covered much in the news, at least not in the sense of public money being given to private faith-based schools.
It involves the new Florida Pre-K program, and the fact that about 200,000 students will be involved. I have many qualms about my tax money going to private religious schools.
They can teach them anything in my name, with my money, to vulnerable little 4 or 5 year olds, and I don’t like it. The Floridians who voted for the Pre-K did not mean for it to be funded this way. And the worst part is they know it is being questioned for not being constitutional.
Here is one of the few articles I could find that address the issue.
“As they crafted Florida’s free pre-kindergarten program last year, lawmakers were largely silent on one potential hang-up: Their plan may be unconstitutional.
The problem is that Florida lawmakers rather than relying on public schools as other states have done opted to offer public money for 4-year-olds to attend religious schools.”
“That’s the very issue the Florida Supreme Court will rule on in the coming months in a separate lawsuit. Florida’s constitution says: “No revenue of the state shall ever be taken from the public treasury directly or indirectly in aid of any church, sect, or religious denomination or in aid of any sectarian institution.”
SNIP….”Voters in 2002 ordered lawmakers to provide a free and voluntary pre-K plan for the upcoming school year. Other states implementing such a plan have relied heavily on public schools for the program.
But Florida, already facing a multi-billion dollar mandate to limit class sizes, opted to instead pay for 4-year-olds to attend private and faith-based schools.
Such use of taxpayer money is at the center of a Florida Supreme Court hearing Tuesday when the state defends the “opportunity scholarship program,” or OSP. Those vouchers provide public money for students who are at failing public schools to attend private or religious schools.”
An aside: I have not seen the ruling from this month at all, not a word about it.
Only about 700 children receive the vouchers.
That pales next to the state’s prediction that the majority of up to 200,000 4-year-olds are expected to attend faith-based schools as part of the pre-K program…”
I find myself wondering if this issue would receive proper coverage if Jeb were not who is he. I see it is no issue nationally, and most articles in Florida papers fail to address the constitutionality question at all.
