Opinion
Education Funding Letter to the Editor

Reader: Hawaii Early-Childhood Measure Blurs Church and State

October 21, 2014 1 min read
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To the Editor:

Amendment 4 on the November ballot in Hawaii would authorize tax support for private early-childhood education programs in secular and faith-based private schools.

While the proposed law and Article X, Section 1 of the Hawaii constitution both prohibit tax support for any form of discrimination (by race, religion, sex, or ancestry), Amendment 4 would not seem to prohibit sectarian indoctrination in the tax-aided, faith-based private schools.

So Hawaiians could be taxed to support sectarian training that they would not choose to support voluntarily, and this would violate language in the state constitution that protects religious freedom and separation of religion and government.

Edd Doerr

President

Americans for Religious Liberty

Silver Spring, Md.

A version of this article appeared in the October 22, 2014 edition of Education Week as Reader: Hawaii Early-Childhood Measure Blurs Church and State

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