Later, the Blaine Amendment and even the U.S. Constitution were interpreted to mean that the government couldn’t give money to any religious institution, even if it treated everyone equally. Still, even in this world, the government could give school aid to citizens, even if some of the citizens were people of faith who spent their benefits in a religious school.
The most successful education program of all time was the G.I. Bill, which essentially gave World War II veterans a voucher to go to the college of their choice. Some went to St. Johns (entanglement!), some went to Notre Dame (entanglement!), and some went to Yeshiva University (fahdrayt!).
No one – despite the “entanglement!” – even thought to challenge the system. All citizens – even those who believed in God – received their benefits and the wall between church and state stood straight and true.
Today, the G.I. Bill wouldn’t, so to speak, have a prayer. As the Florida court and others have concluded, the Blaine Amendment prohibits the government from giving vouchers to citizens because some of the citizens will spend their benefits in a religious school.
This seems a strange interpretation of a law that, at least in Florida, bars government aid only to a “sectarian institution.” (New York’s version only bars government aid to a “school or institutionunder the direction of any religious denomination.”) Yet, after 60 years of drifting ever leftward, this is the law of the land.
Think we’ve reached the bottom of the slippery slope? We have not yet begun to slide. The New York State Legislature is currently debating a new law that would give parents of all school children a tax credit of $500 for each child. All you have to do is spend $500 on educating your child and the state will give that money back to you in the form of a tax credit. This is not a voucher; this is a dollar for dollar reduction in your New York State income tax bill.
If you have, say, two kids in school, spend $500 in education expenses on each one, and your New York State income tax bill is $10,000, you only pay $9,000. How’s the state going to pay for all this? Don’t even give it another thought. The whole cost of the program is only about two percent of what Albany spends on education aid every year.
Public school parents will be just as entitled to the tax credit as private school parents. If they spend money on books, or tutors, they too can get that back. Tax credits simply give parents a tiny sliver of their tax dollars to educate their kids as they see fit. If past privatization efforts are any guide, we’ll get a bigger bang out of this two percent than we do out of the other ninety-eight.
For opponents of tax credits, such as the United Federation of Teachers, even a tax credit is unconstitutional under the Blaine Amendment (entanglement!). In their view – which might be termed “No Dollar Left Behind” – not only can’t the government give money to its ctizens because some of them are people of faith, it can’t let citizens keep their own money because some of them are people of faith. This is grounded in a twisted reading of New York’s Blaine Amendment, which, by its plain terms, only bars aid to a “school or institution.” If you interpreted language that way in a public school class, you’d get a failing grade in reading comprehension.
