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ReligionNewsBlog.com • Item 83 • Posted: Wednesday July 24, 2002  

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Faith-based office at Education Department spreading gospel of government grants for religious, community groups
By GREG TOPPO
The Associated Press
7/24/02 4:31 AM
http://www.mlive.com/newsflash/regional/index.ssf?/newsflash/get_story.ssf?/cgi-free/getstory_ssf.cgi?g9833_BC_MI–Schools-Religious_1027499582&&news&newsflash-michigan

WASHINGTON (AP) — An Education Department team is quietly traveling the country helping religious groups compete for more than $1 billion in federal grants for afterschool and tutoring programs.

The effort to promote one of President Bush’s priorities promises to have an impact on public schools as early as this fall, even as state lawmakers continue debating whether to allow public-school students to use tax monies to attend religious schools.
(…)

The landmark education bill approved by Congress last year funnels $1.25 billion in federal aid for afterschool programs and millions more for tutoring services to schools, businesses and “community-based organizations.” As far as Bush is concerned, that includes churches and other religious organizations, though that’s not spelled out in the law.

Civil liberty groups don’t like it, but there’s nothing specifically barring such groups, leaving it to the administration — and possibly the courts — to sort it out.

In the meantime, the American Civil Liberties Union and others complain that the administration isn’t insisting that religious groups comply with laws about whom they can hire. So, for instance, a Catholic church that gets federal funds to provide tutoring can refuse to hire Baptists, Jews or Muslims, even though nonreligious groups couldn’t discriminate in that manner.

“The Bush administration is trying to push the envelope and not necessarily make it clear that you can’t discriminate,” said the ACLU’s Terri Schroeder.

Education organizations also fear that religious groups could use the access to children to proselytize on the public’s dime.

“You always have concerns when you’re starting to blur the line between church and state,” said Randall Moody, a lobbyist for the National Education Association. “You just never know. How do you police that? How do you regulate that?”

Porter, an attorney from Pittsburgh, rejects the idea that church groups be required to hire workers from other faiths, saying this discriminates against such groups “for trying to be true to their character.”
He said the administration would monitor programs’ spending — they can’t buy Bibles with federal funds, for instance — and added that school-related sessions must be free of proselytizing. Students also must be allowed to opt out of religious sessions.

But Porter admits he’s asking religious groups to tread a fine line by demanding that they separate their academic and spiritual offerings.
(…)

The administration has launched similar efforts in four other Cabinet-level agencies, saying religious groups are well-suited to provide social services to the poor.

Bush has tried to open a host of new federal programs to religious groups, but that effort has stalled in Congress.
(…)

Surveys have shown that congregations are largely unaware of the new opportunity. Religious groups also remain wary of government money, fearful they will become burdened by regulations that could restrict their religious practices.

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