SEARCHING
Find out where the grant data comes from, and what years and philanthropies are included.
Information, tips and tricks for making your search more successful
Search
Grants – search grants based on their
stated purpose
Recipients – search all grants to
a particular recipient
Funders – search for organizations or
individuals that are funding grants
People – search for people who benefit
from grant funds
Website – search the website for specific
text
Advanced search – specifiy multiple
criteria
All-in-one search – search the website
and the database at the same time for specific text
MEDIA TRANSPARENCY
Sign-up for our newsletter
Only registered visitors are allowed to email content or post comments
Your help is essential to this website
|
AROUND THE WEB
Village Voice
May 30, 2002
Nat Hentoff
Will God Set the Curriculum?
...In a crucially important First Amendment case, The Supreme Court will soon decide whether the constitutional separation of church and state will be largely dismantled.
The case, Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, concerns an Ohio program in which $2250 in public tax money is given in the form of vouchers, called "scholarships," to mainly low-income Cleveland families—many of them black—to remove their children from failing public schools and put them in private schools, including religious schools.
In the case before the Supreme Court, 99.4 percent of the children using these vouchers are going to religious schools...At issue is the First Amendment's command in the Establishment Clause that "there shall be no law respecting an establishment of religion."
...the Supreme Court will decide whether the Cleveland voucher plan—and others in place or planned around the country—advance religion and also entangle government with religion. The Court will also rule on whether there is no violation of the Establishment Clause if the voucher money does not go directly to the religious schools but is paid to the parents, who then make a free and independent choice to use that money for a private religious school.
On February 20, oral arguments were held before the Supreme Court. The Bush-Ashcroft administration, which firmly supports the Cleveland voucher program, sent its top gun, Solicitor General [Ted] Olson, to defend it. He has often, and effectively, argued before the Court.
Justice Sandra Day O'Connor asked Olson whether the voucher program makes "any effort to make sure that the money that ends up in the parochial schools is not used for religious training."
"No," Olson said. But he quickly added that the government is not "putting its thumb on the scales in favor of religion" because the parents make a "genuinely independent private choice."
Had I been arguing for the other side that day, I would have shown the Court this stern advice to parents who want to use vouchers from a Lutheran school in Cleveland:
"It is highly inconsistent for any parents to send a child to this school if they . . . are not living a Christian life or willing to learn how to lead such a life [and] are not supporting part of a Congregation through worship and sharing of time and talents."
Jews, Muslims, atheists, and agnostics need not apply to this school, however "genuinely independent" their choice to send their kids, with public money, to a religious school...
...The vote in Zelman v. Simmons-Harris will, in all likelihood, be 5-4, with Sandra Day O'Connor deciding whether to tear down much of what remains of that wall separating church and state. To be continued.
Read the story >
|
|
