Politico posted an op-ed recently by Nathan J. Diament, the director of public policy for the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, who teaches religion and politics at American University. Diament underscores recent acts by the Democrats and the Obama Administration’s efforts to prohibit Stimulus spending of $14 Billion for school programs and repair from reaching private and faith-based schools, a controversial reversal of a longstanding practice.
“Democrats have, so far, excluded parochial and other nonpublic schools from eligibility in the multibillion-dollar program, even though modernizing these schools would achieve the identical goals of job creation and energy efficiency. It is this unfair exclusion that will rile religious voters.”
While on his campaign of Change, Obama called upon “Democrats and Republicans … to put good ideas ahead of the old ideological battles, a sense of common purpose above … narrow partisanship.” So when it comes to school modernization funds, including parochial and other nonpublic schools is the not only correct policy, it is the law. It is also smart politics if Democrats wish to “keep the faith.”
Misrepresentations by Democrats and radical groups like Americans for the Separation of Church and State (which, by the way, started as a WASP anti-Catholic interest group) are just wrong on every point of this debate. Supporting private and faith-based schools is constitutional, it’s the law, and it will benefit million of Americans while saving public schools $48 Billion.
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