Within Donald Trump’s proposed $4.4 trillion budget (that adds $7 trillion to the deficit over the next decade), you’ll find a request for $1 billion in funding for private religious schools.
Critics say that request, which is four times the amount the White House sought last year, promotes indoctrination at the expense of education.
The plan is to divert $1 billion in taxpayer money to private school voucher programs, which take money from public education to pay for the education of a small number of students in schools that are largely affiliated with various religious institutions. Those schools are given “enormous leeway to discriminate against LGBTQ, nonreligious, and disabled students,” according to the Center for Inquiry.
“This administration is falling over itself to please the religious right, and this time it is to encourage parents to remove their children from pluralistic and secular public schools to enroll them instead in schools designed to indoctrinate children into religious beliefs,” said Robyn Blumner, president and CEO of the Center for Inquiry.
“Voucher schemes benefit only a small number of students with no meaningful improvement in educational outcomes. What they also do is promote a divided America, where children go to school with only those who share their parents’ religious beliefs.
“Public schools are tremendous incubators for tolerance, especially religious tolerance, where children interact with others from different faith traditions and no faith at all. The United States has escaped religious strife in part due to this system. Unfortunately the administration is looking to undermine what has worked so well for so long.”
Read the full story at the Friendly Atheist Blog
