This past year, the Maine legislature considerd four bills (LD 250; LD 1044; LD 1092; and LD 1287) that would have allowed for a system of government-funded religion here in Maine. We successfully opposed each of these proposals - because the arguments against funding religion with public money are fundamental to our democracy. When government becomes entangled with any religion - all religious freedom is threatened. There is no place more private than our places of religious study and prayer, and there is no place that the government belongs less.
As pointed out in a recent ACLU blog articulating the problems with school vouchers, the debate around religious schol funding predates the Bill of Rights.
"James Madison, the primary architect of the First Amendment, opposed efforts in Virginia in 1785 to compel citizens to support "Teachers of the Christian Religion." Madison believed that taxing the public to support private religious instruction was an unjustifiable and coercive interference with liberty of conscience. He wrote: "Who does not see . . . [t]hat the same authority which can force a citizen to contribute three pence only of his property for the support of any one establishment, may force him to conform to any other establishment in all cases whatsoever?""
Our scarce public education dollars should be directed to improving our public schools - not diverting resources to private institutions. Please help us continue to push back - it was a bad idea in 1785 - it remains so today.
For more about our position - check our our testimony on LDs 1044, 1092 and 1287.
