Florida faces voucher amendment

Vouchers for private schools are one of these right-wing think tank ideas that most of the public is never fooled by, but keeps being pushed more and more. (Kind of like UnfairTax.) The scheme melds together the primary components of totalitarian conservatism: social engineering (which includes violating church-state separation) and shattering public services (even when private organizations fail to offer a superior product). Florida has been a center of this fight, as the Sunshine State adopted what was probably the most overbound voucher program in America.

Thankfully, Florida's constitution has a clause specifically barring the state from using taxpayer money to aid sectarian institutions. So in 2004, a state court declared vouchers unconstitutional under that provision. It should have also been declared unconstitutional under the federal Constitution's protection of separation of religion and state, but the U.S. Supreme Court had nearly vacated that longstanding concept by favoring vouchers in an outrageous 2002 ruling.

But the stink tanks can't be wrong, can they? (See what I mean about them pushing rejected ideas?) Now Florida's omnipotent tax reform commission wants to gut the state constitution's safeguard against taxpayer funds going to religious schools. They've put a measure on the ballot that - if approved by voters - would repeal that clause and replace it with the words, "Individuals or entities may not be barred from participating in public programs because of their religion."

On its face, these words sound good, but the problem is how the new clause would be used - and the fact that it replaces a clause that already protects religious freedom. The new clause is designed to sound good - even though it isn't. It's conservative spin. "Because of their religion" is actually meant to be taken as "if they sponsor religion." They make it sound as if the purpose of the change is to treat all religions equally, when really it's to force unwilling taxpayers to fund religion. It's a slippery slope too: Any religious organization might demand public funding if this passes, so church-state separation may erode much further than expected.

Think public schools are bad? Private schools are worse. The Last Word of 8/16/07 described the failures of vouchers in detail. Vouchers are not the panacea conservatives claim: The article exposes how vouchers actually hurt the poor and are in effect a handout to private schools, for many schools just raise tuition by the amount of the voucher. Vouchers (which have the least amount of public support in poor areas) use the poor almost as servants in the culture war.

As another example of Florida's tax reform commission's extremism, it also wrote a ballot measure that would replace property taxes with a sales tax increase (in a state that already has one of the higher sales taxes). Why should we believe them when they claim vouchers help the poor, when they support shifting more of the tax burden to the poor?

If I had to write an amendment to the federal Constitution, I think one specifically outlawing taxpayer aid to religious schools would be my second choice (right behind my amendment to annul corporate personhood). While it should be covered under the existing establishment clause, too many activist courts and stink tank militants who dominate state committees think otherwise.

(Source: http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/1261473;
http://www.aclufl.org/news_events/?action=viewRelease&emailAlertID=3422)