Letter: School vouchers merely a subsidy for rich, religious

Thursday, May 19, 2005 | 8:58 a.m.

The Nevada Legislature is considering a bill that would, if passed, violate the state Constitution. Article 11, Sec. 10 says, "No public funds of any kind or character whatever, State, County or Municipal, shall be used for sectarian purposes."

Senate Bill 223 provides for state funds to be taken away from our public schools and to be used to pay for students' tuition in private schools. Since more than 95 percent of private school students are in church-affiliated schools, it is clear that this bill proposes government-sponsored religion at the expense of our public school system.

The proposed bill will not provide real choice, since space at nonreligious private schools is limited and students will not be guaranteed admission. To support statistical evidence of "superiority" over public schools, private schools will be reluctant to accept students with learning disabilities. Public schools will then be left with a larger proportion of learning disabled students and less funds to provide needed special programs for them.

Most nonreligious private schools charge more than the taxpayer-funded subsidy. This means the poor, who cannot currently afford tuition in private secular schools, will still not be able to send their children to nonreligious private schools. Voucher programs such as this don't offer choice. They are nothing more than subsidies for the rich (whose children are already at private schools) or the religious.

As a Nevada taxpayer, I should not be forced to pay my tax dollars to support religious indoctrination of children that is contrary to the very clear wording and intent of the Nevada Constitution.

MEL LIPMAN Editor's note: The writer, a Las Vegas resident, is president of the American Humanist Association.