Establishment Clause of the First Amendment
This question is at the heart of one of the longest-running church-state debates in U.S. history. Both opponents and proponents of voucher programs have worked diligently to express their views. Below are common arguments raised by participants in this culture-war battle. Arguments against vouchers Voucher opponents contend vouchers are both unconstitutional and poor policy. Their arguments include: • Vouchers will harm public schools by taking the best students, with the most involved parents, out of public schools. This exodus will leave only the most difficult-to-educate children, including special-education students and students with discipline problems. Opponents note that because private schools are not required to take all students, as public schools are, only top students have any real choice. Thus public schools are left with the most-expensive-to-educate children — whom they must now educate with fewer resources. • Pulling money from public schools will retard “real” school r
The Establishment Clause of the First Amendment refers to the first of several pronouncements in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, stating that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion”. Together with the Free Exercise Clause, (“… or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”), these two clauses make up what are commonly known as the “religion clauses” of the First Amendment. The establishment clause has generally been interpreted to prohibit 1) the establishment of a national religion by Congress, or 2) the preference of one religion over another or the support of a religious idea with no identifiable secular purpose. The first approach is called the “separationist” or “no aid” interpretation, while the second approach is called the “non-preferentialist” or “accommodationist” interpretation.