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Faith and federal funding
Has the federal government overstepped in giving nearly half a million dollars of funding to an Alaskan Bible college? The Freedom From Religion Foundation says it has, and is suing the U.S. Secretary of Education for violating the establishment clause of the First Amendment. Alaskan Christian College is an overtly religious school with a Bible-centered curriculum--but it is also a school that serves Native American communities and works to ensure that Native Americans in the area have access to higher education. It's on that basis that the college receives federal funding, and the dispute at hand has to do with whether it can fairly be said that the secular aspects of the school's mission outweigh its openly faith-based institutional philosophy. In the past, the courts have allowed religious schools to receive federal funds that were clearly earmarked for secular purposes; at issue in this case will be whether the college is more interested in educating Native Americans or in converting them.
Posted by acta online at April 28, 2005 08:53 AM