Tuesday, January 22, 2019
The new attacks on school choice (in Indiana and, soon, elsewhere)
As I suggested a few days ago -- it seems like forever, since it was before this weekend's Twitter-mob-unpleasantness regarding Catholic high school students from Kentucky at the March for Life -- the attacks on the school (and on schools like it) where Mrs. Pence teaches should be seen as part of a well-funded and coordinated effort to (a) pre-emptively back-foot judicial nominees and (b) weaken school-choice programs. A news story here in Indiana provides some confirmation for point (b). Some lawmakers (who oppose Indiana's pathbreaking school-choice program) have seized on a recent discrimination lawsuit in which a teacher at a Catholic high school was fired after it became known that she had legally married her longtime partner of the same sex. As the story notes:
The school and Archdiocese have said in public statements that employees must support the teachings of the Catholic Church, including marriage being “between a man and a woman,” and that the expectation is clearly defined in employee contracts.
Some lawmakers have announced their plan to exclude from participation in the school choice program schools that "discriminate" -- whether or not this discrimination takes the form of enforcing contractual provisions that reflect the schools' understanding of their religious mission. Such exclusion would (as it is intended to do) dramatically reduce the number of high-performing schools that participate in the choice program.
This ("Confusion About Discrimination"), from 7 (!) years ago, appears to continue to be relevant. Stay tuned.
https://mirrorofjustice.blogs.com/mirrorofjustice/2019/01/the-new-attacks-on-school-choice-in-indiana-and-soon-elsewhere.html