ACLU Wants All Parents and Students Protected

June 29, 1998

Religious liberty and Milwaukee's school children took an outrageous body blow when the Wisconsin Supreme Court decided to let Governor Thompson's religious school choice funding scheme go ahead.

Religious liberty took a blow because taxpayers will now be forced to support religious institutions they may not endorse. The 85,000 children who will remain in Milwaukee public schools, after up to 15,000 others leave for private and religious schools, took a blow because their under-funded schools will lose support. The Court is allowing a funding scheme of dubious educational value to proceed at the expense of religious liberty.

The ACLU of Wisconsin is not opposed to religious education. Indeed, among our group of parent and clergy plaintiffs in the choice lawsuit there are religious educators. Our point is, tax dollars should not support religion -- it's bad for religion.

Now that the Wisconsin Supreme Court has ruled, the public should expect to see religious school choice in action. After all, they are paying for it. The religious institutions will benefit to the tune of tens of millions of dollars. Because the Legislature irresponsibly removed most evaluation measures from the program, it will be difficult to know what schools are doing.

The rights and responsibilities of choice students and parents also remain unclear as the new school year approaches. For instance, parents, if they notify the religious school in writing, may have their child "opt out" of "any religious activity." In many situations it is pretty clear what constitutes a religious activity --  for example, public worship is always a religious activity.

However, is it religion:

• If creation science is taught in biology class?
• If young girls are admonished to graciously submit to the authority of their husbands when they marry (a belief the Southern Baptist Convention recently proclaimed) in family health class?

A popular textbook series from Bob Jones University teaches that the Catholic Church "destroyed more Bibles than the pagan emperors," that the Episcopal Church is "dead in ritualism and rationalism," that Quakers are "unbiblical," that the Mormon Church is a "cult," and more. If a religious choice school uses that textbook series, is that a religious activity?

I suspect that the school will say yes -- our religious values and beliefs are taught throughout the curriculum -- that notion is what many proclaim in their mission statements. Will parents be able to use the opt out provision in such circumstances? If they try what will happen? How will they even know about the opt out provision? Is pulling their child out of the school in mid-semester their only real opt out provision?

Proponents of religious school choice, of course, will say that no parent is forced to send their child to a choice school in the first place. The proponents' free market philosophy says that parents who don't like what is being taught will go somewhere else. How convenient. The religious schools will end up teaching children whose parents agree with certain religious values or don't know what's being taught.

There is, of course, another possibility. The religious schools could purge their curriculum of their faith's special religious values and teachings. Students won't know if they're in a Catholic, Lutheran, or some other faith group's school. This possibility is why so many sincerely religious people believe in the principle of the separation of church and state.

Milwaukee parents and students are caught up in a great experiment. The religious choice schools have been given great discretion. The public has a right to know how they will use it for the public good. Hopefully, the religious schools will open up their operations to public scrutiny. It would be easy for them to do so. Every experiment needs guidelines. This brave new world needs rights and responsibilities for all parents and students, too. As the ACLU of Wisconsin continues planning its appeal of the state supreme court's decision, it will also consider assisting parents who believe that their rights have been violated by any taxpayer supported school.

Chris Ahmuty