Initiative 1A contains no guidelines or restrictions on the use of taxpayer funds by religious institutions.
Sometimes a good idea doesn’t look as good when you examine it up close. Denver’s ballot measure 1A is one of those ideas. It seeks to achieve the laudable goal of increasing the affordability and quality of preschool education. It would do so by increasing the sales tax in Denver and spending the money to create preschool quality standards and tuition credits for parents to use for pre-kindergarten education at local preschools.
When voters look closely at 1A, however, they’ll see a serious flaw in the plan. Under the program, parents can choose any licensed preschool provider – public, private or religious – to receive tuition credits funded by the new city tax. It’s the public funding of religious schools that causes the problem, raising serious issues involving the separation of church and state.
Unlike Head Start and other government-funded preschool programs, 1A contains no guidelines or restrictions on the use of taxpayer funds by religious institutions. There are no anti-discrimination provisions on admitting students or hiring staff, nor are there any requirements that preschools segregate the tax-funded programs from the religious instruction that such schools are created to promote.
Moreover, there are no restrictions against using tax revenues to teach hatred, prejudice or intolerance. Guidelines will be developed in the future by the politically appointed entity that will administer the plan, but at this time, it is an open question what those guidelines will require, or whether any of them will address religious practice, discrimination, or the content of what is taught.
In fact, when those regulations are considered, religious institutions will likely be adamant that government should have no say in what is taught in their preschools or whom they should hire as teachers. That is precisely why the separation of church and state is so important. It means not only that religion should stay out of government, but that government should not tell religious institutions what to say, teach or do.
The closer you look, the worse it gets. If taxpayer money is going to religious preschools without any restrictions, the plan runs afoul of the plain language of Colorado’s constitution: “Neither the general assembly, nor any … city … shall ever make any appropriation, or pay from any public fund or moneys whatever, anything in aid of any church or sectarian society, or for any sectarian purpose, or to help support or sustain any school … controlled by any church or sectarian denomination whatsoever.” This initiative, if passed, could be litigated for years before the courts determine its constitutionality.
Our country’s enduring separation of church and state has provided Americans with protections against state interference in religion, and has allowed all religions to flourish. For centuries, America’s religious life has been vibrant, thanks to the principles keeping the government out of religion – and religion out of government. As Justice Sandra Day O’Connor wrote, “Those who would renegotiate the boundaries between church and state must therefore answer a difficult question: Why would we trade a system that has served us so well for one that has served others so poorly?”
There have been efforts to tear down the wall between church and state ever since our Founding Fathers erected it after fleeing religious persecution in England. Those who would remove bricks from that wall always argue that their efforts are for a good cause. Americans must protect the principle of church-state separation from erosion, even in the name of the well-meaning social reforms usually invoked to justify the removal of each brick.
Instead of instituting a plan that can cause damage to the church-state relationship, alternatives should be explored. A publicly funded preschool program could look to private foundation money to support religiously oriented education programs, while tax money is used for non-sectarian purposes. Alternatively, public money could be raised and used to set up a public pre-K program in conjunction with Denver Public Schools.
Yes, preschool matters. America’s religious liberty matters, too. It’s too bad that 1A promotes the former ideal at the expense of the latter. The Denver community has a substantial interest in ensuring that students are taught the three R’s but not in adding a new tax to finance a fourth R: religion.
Bruce H. DeBoskey is Mountain States regional director of the Anti- Defamation League.
