The latest Supreme Court case over public funding for religious schooling examines a policy in Maine, a state dotted with small towns too tiny to run their own public schools. Over half of the state\u2019s school districts (officially called \u201cschool administrative units\u201d or SAUs for short) contract with and pay tuition costs to another nearby school of the parents\u2019 choice\u2014public or private.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s where the hangup lies. By law, Maine mandates that partnering private schools be \u201cnonsectarian in nature, in accordance with the First Amendment of the United States Constitution\u201d to receive the funding, and three Christian families in the state are challenging the requirement.<\/p>\n
The Supreme Court will hear their case, Carson vs. Makin, this week. The decision could set further precedent in defining the distance between church and state and the approach to religious freedom itself, as it makes a distinction between barring public funding due to religious identity of the recipient and barring funding to the religious purpose it would be used to advance.<\/p>\n
Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>\n Is there a difference between the state blocking funding to Christian schools because they are Christian and doing so because they teach Christian lessons? <\/p>\n A look at the church-state separation case coming to the Supreme Court this week: https:\/\/t.co\/L5pzqZZfb1<\/a><\/p>\n — Christianity Today (@CTmagazine) December 6, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n \n