Planned it all along
| By Alan Franklin - Jan 6th, 2006 at 1:46 pm EST |
The dirty secret of Colorado's "College Opportunity Fund" voucher program: back-door privatization. Public dollars for religious schools.
Didn't I tell you a year ago this was the plan all along?
Colorado Christian University backed in lawsuit over aid
(blood vessel blowing) The student never sees this money! It's a shell game, don't you get it?! All they've done is call the same money going to the same institutions by a different name -- except now, church-schools can hop on the bus through a little terminological sleight-of-hand. While our actual public colleges are overcrowded and falling apart.
Former Senate president John Andrews loved this plan, just like he endorses the destruction of public education. Is it any clearer today how that's not a coincidence?
Didn't I tell you a year ago this was the plan all along?
Colorado Christian University backed in lawsuit over aid
The Department of Justice is siding with Colorado Christian University in its federal lawsuit against the Colorado Commission on Higher Education, arguing that CCU should be allowed to participate in state financial aid programs.
CCU filed its lawsuit in December 2004, after the CCHE said students couldn't use a new, $2,400-per-year state stipend at CCU because it is "pervasively sectarian."
That decision - which the CCHE based on state law - amounted to discrimination, the Lakewood- based CCU argued.
Last month, in a brief filed as part of the case in federal court, the Justice Department agreed.
While Colorado law may say one thing, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that if state money goes directly to students, who then use it at their college of choice, it doesn't violate the separation of church and state, the Justice Department wrote.
On Wednesday, CCHE Executive Director Rick O'Donnell said he welcomed the department's opinion...
(blood vessel blowing) The student never sees this money! It's a shell game, don't you get it?! All they've done is call the same money going to the same institutions by a different name -- except now, church-schools can hop on the bus through a little terminological sleight-of-hand. While our actual public colleges are overcrowded and falling apart.
Former Senate president John Andrews loved this plan, just like he endorses the destruction of public education. Is it any clearer today how that's not a coincidence?
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The closest analogy would be that if CCU is subsidized by a particular church, then members of that church might be entitled to lower tuition because some part of their tithing has been going to the school.
Public schools are an extension of the government, so the Constitutional restriction against establishing religion keeps them from doing things like organizing prayers. Private schools don't have such restrictions. The radical right wants to eliminate public schools and push everyone toward religious instruction.