URGENT: Tell Your Senators to Oppose Taxpayer Funding for Religious Schools Right now, the United States Senate is in the midst of debating its 2014 Budget Resolution (S. Con. Res. 8). On Friday, the Senate will begin final voting, at which point it will consider at least two amendments that would create a federal private school voucher program. Sponsors of school voucher programs sell vouchers as a cure for our ailing education system. However, vouchers are actually a backdoor attempt to take money away from our shared public schools and funnel it to private schools — the vast majority of which are sectarian institutions that indoctrinate children with religious dogma and pseudoscience. The Center for Inquiry (CFI) opposes school voucher programs and urges you to immediately contact your senators and tell them to vote “no” on any voucher amendments. School voucher programs are a big problem. Why? They force taxpayers to fund religion. These programs take public funds away from public schools in order to fund private religious schools. This violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. They force taxpayers to fund the teaching of religious dogma. Private religious schools are not required to follow most state or federal education standards, so they can—and do—replace evidence-based curricula with faith-based religious tenets. They force taxpayers to fund religious discrimination. Since private religious schools don’t have to follow most standards, they can not only teach religious dogma, they can also discriminate in hiring and firing and ignore other standards designed to ensure equality in education. They force taxpayers to fund ineffective programs. Various studies by the Department of Education and other groups have found that school voucher programs do not necessarily improve academic achievement. Instead of supporting private and religious schools, taxpayer money should be used to support and improve the public school system, which provides a religiously neutral, constitutionally sound, and evidence-based education. Please contact your U.S. Senators today and tell them to reject any amendment that would create a school voucher program! Thank you! You can read more about the problems with school vouchers by downloading our position paper here. Recipients Your Senators Contact * Required fields * Title: Mr. Ms. Mrs. Miss Dr. * First Name: * Last Name: * Your Email: * Address 1: Address 2: * City: * State / Province: Choose a State AK AL AR AZ CA CO CT DC DE FL GA HI IA ID IL IN KS KY LA MA MD ME MI MN MO MS MT NC ND NE NH NJ NM NV NY OH OK OR PA RI SC SD TN TX UT VA VT WA WI WV WY AS FM GU MH MP PR PW VI * ZIP / Postal Code: * Phone Number: Yes, I would like to receive periodic updates and communications from Center for Inquiry. Remember me. What's this? Message Please Reject School Voucher Amendments Dear [Decision Maker], As a friend of the Center for Inquiry, I am writing to ask you to oppose any amendments to the 2014 Senate Budget Resolution (S. Con. Res. 8) that would create a private school voucher program.



* Personalize your message Sponsors of school voucher programs sell vouchers as a cure for our ailing education system. However, vouchers are actually a backdoor attempt to take money away from our shared public schools and funnel it to private schools -- the vast majority of which are sectarian institutions that indoctrinate children with religious dogma and pseudoscience. School voucher programs are a big problem for several reasons. 1. They force taxpayers to fund religion. These programs take public funds away from public schools in order to fund private religious schools. This violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. 2. They force taxpayers to fund the teaching of religious dogma. Private religious schools are not required to follow most state or federal education standards, so they can--and do--replace evidence-based curricula with faith-based religious tenets. 3. They force taxpayers to fund religious discrimination. Since private religious schools don't have to follow most standards, they can not only teach religious dogma, they can also discriminate in hiring and firing and ignore other standards designed to ensure equality in education. 4. They force taxpayers to fund ineffective programs. Various studies by the Department of Education and other groups have found that school voucher programs do not necessarily improve academic achievement.



Instead of supporting private and religious schools, taxpayer money should be used to support and improve the public school system, which provides a religiously neutral, constitutionally sound, and evidence-based education.



I look forward to hearing from you about this matter. Sincerely,

[Your Name]

[Your Address]

[City, State ZIP]