Parents take on the HUGE responsibility of raising children to be loving, productive, and moral citizens in any culture. According to USA Today – the financial cost to raise a child in the USA is a whopping $233,610. Included in this estimate in 12 years of education.
For some parents, who are Christians, there is the added stress of watching the failing public schools try to indoctrinate their children, even if possible, to reject their parent’s religion. As with my wife and I, these parents look for alternative options such as moving the kids to a Christian school or buying the materials and homeschooling them. In Montana, the set up a tax credit for anyone who donated to a private school, even religious.
Until 1962 and 1963, government-funded public schools led the children in prayer and Bible reading. Progressive anti-God judges erected a non-existent separation of church and state doctrine, which has been used 100’s of times since to try to stop any involvement of local Christians in local schools.
The debate has been what did the founder intend for our new nation. A government that demands the absence of the church in government or the absence of government in the church. I come and millions of Christians come down of the latter, which was the norm for most of our nation’s history.
Amendment 1 – Constitution of the United States of America
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
From PJ Media
By a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court upheld a lower court decision that allowed a Montana scholarship program that benefitted mostly private school kids to go forward.
The state scholarship program gave $150 tax credits to donors who gave to school scholarship programs. The Montana Department of Revenue wrote rules that prohibited private religious schools from participating in the program because the state constitution banned state aid to religious schools.
Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the opinion that said the state ruling violates the religious freedom of parents who want the scholarships to help pay for their children’s private education. “A state need not subsidize private education. But once a state decides to do so, it cannot disqualify some private schools solely because they are religious,” Roberts wrote.
Naturally, conservative activists are overjoyed at the decision.
Advocates for allowing state money to be used in private schooling said the court recognized in its decision that parents should not be penalized for sending their children to schools that are a better fit than the public schools.
“This opinion will pave the way for more states to pass school choice programs that allow parents to choose a school that best meets their child’s individual needs, regardless of whether those schools are religious or nonreligious,” said Erika Smith, a senior attorney with the Institute for Justice, which represented the parents in their court fight.
It is time to tear down that wall (Separation of church and state) and allow the citizens of our Constitutional Republic, to pursue and practice their religion freely. If the state allows those who donate to secular schools, a tax credit, then the same must be offered to those who support school choice, even if Christian, donating to them instead.
With failing public schools across our country, only the hardened, anti-God, progressives, would continue to demand that no taxes, some of which are paid by the parents of children in their failing schools and escaping with school choice, the option to attend a quality school, even if religious.
