FRC Warns Against Anti-Christian Bias in Post-Hurricane Education Funding Bill
by Jim Brown
October 24, 2005
(AgapePress) - A pro-family leader says a new U.S. Senate bill designed to aid hurricane-displaced students contains language that assails private and religious education. The measure sponsored by Republican Mike Enzi and Democrat Ted Kennedy would allow both public and private schools to seek up to $6,000 reimbursement for each displaced student served; however, the proposal forbids using the aid for "religious instruction, indoctrination, or worship." Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council (FRC) believes the bipartisan education funding bill discriminates by restricting the use of the funding to support of secular educational activities. And, he contends, in so doing, the measure is unfair to those Christian and other private schools along the Gulf Coast that have opened their doors to accommodate student overflow from the public school system.
| | 
Tony Perkins |
"What the government is saying" with this measure, Perkins asserts, is that "a private religious school cannot receive any of the money that might follow that student because [the government is] fearful that [the school] might indoctrinate students in religion." He sees this as just one example of the pronounced bias against religious schools arguably contained in the proposal. "You might think of that coming out of a communist country -- out of Cuba -- but not out of the United States of America," the FRC president says. "And I think there's [cause for] greater concern over the indoctrination that takes place in our public school system, not in our religious schools," he adds.
Some liberal critics of the Enzi-Kennedy proposal oppose it because they see it as a voucher bill. Meanwhile conservatives like Perkins challenge it largely on the basis of fairness.
"If we're concerned about getting these students back into school, getting them educated, let's put the focus on the children getting the education -- not trying to discriminate against institutions," the pro-family leader says. And as for the choice between secular or religious schools, he suggests, "Let the parents make that decision with the vouchers that are given to them by the government."
Rather than support for the Enzi-Kennedy measure, Perkins is urging the Senate Education Committee to approve legislation similar to a bill set forth by House Education and Workforce Committee chairman John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Congressman Bobby Jindal (R-Louisiana).
Their proposal would create "Family Education Reimbursement Accounts" for parents of children affected by the hurricanes -- an idea the FRC head favors, since it would allow the education funding to follow the student rather than the school.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
