Farmington
Hills, MI — The Society for Humanistic Judaism condemns the attempts in
this country to fund private schools, especially religious schools,
with public funds. As Humanistic Jews, we recognize that a free and
public education is a cornerstone of democracy. Using public funds in
the guise of school vouchers, tax credits, and scholarships diverts much
needed resources from public schools, decreasing
the quality of public education and widening the educational inequality
between rich and poor students.
School
vouchers, tax credits, and scholarship programs disproportionately
provide public funding for religious education, breaching our
constitutional
guarantee that government will not support the establishment of
religion. Nearly 70 percent of private schools, which enroll 80 percent
of private school students, provide religious education, often
compelling students to attend religious services, regardless
of their beliefs, and teaching religious doctrine in place of accepted
scientific facts. Providing public tax dollars through vouchers, tax
credits and scholarships is providing selective support for religious
ideologies and practice.
While
publicly-funded school vouchers, tax credits, and scholarship programs
are promoted as offering parents and students a choice, in reality
the choice is made by the private schools. Unlike public schools,
private schools are able to discriminate on the basis of income,
religion, disabilities, and other characteristics. Voucher schools are
not required to accept special needs students.
The Society for Humanistic Judaism has issued a statement opposing public funding of private schools that reads in part:
As Humanistic Jews, we believe that publicly-funded vouchers, or scholarships, or tax credits – while
purporting to be about choice – in reality result in the direct
government funding of religious education in violation of Establishment
Clause principles as embodied by the First Amendment.
The statement concludes:
Accordingly, we, the
Society for Humanistic Judaism, oppose all vouchers, scholarships, and
tax credits that divert resources from public schools to the benefit of
private schools, especially schools that are
religious in nature. Religious education must always remain privately
funded so as to protect both religion and our democracy.
The
Society for Humanistic Judaism is the central body for Humanistic
Jewish congregations in North America. Embracing a human-centered
philosophy
of life that combines the celebration of Jewish culture and identity
with an adherence to humanistic values and ideas, the Society creates an
inclusive, nurturing environment for families with children and empty
nesters, pre-schoolers and teens, university
students, young adults and seniors, single parents, intermarried
families, and the GLBT community. Humanistic Jews believe in the human
capacity to create a better world rather than in reliance on a
supernatural power or an omniscient deity, seeking solutions
to human conflicts that respect the dignity, freedom, and self-esteem
of every person. the human capacity to create a better world rather than
in reliance on a supernatural power or an omniscient deity, seeking
solutions to human conflicts that respect the
dignity, freedom, and self-esteem of every person.
This
growing movement provides a community for many unaffiliated Jews who
identify as cultural, secular, “just Jewish,” “not very religious” or
Jewish atheists. Forty-nine percent of the United States' 5.5 million
Jews say that their outlook is secular and forty-eight percent do not
belong to a synagogue or other Jewish organization, according to the
American Jewish Identification Survey undertaken
by professional statisticians under the auspices of the Center for
Jewish Studies at the City University of New York. The Society helps to
organize local congregations and communities, creates and disseminates
celebrational and educational materials, provides
national programs, including programs for teens and young adults, and
serves the needs of individual members who do not live near an existing
Humanistic congregation.
For more information, contact the Society for Humanistic Judaism at 248-478-7610,
www.shj.org.
