Much has changed since I last wrote about the Supreme Court’s decision that, in effect, all but forces Maine and every other state to fund private religious education. Now it seems the ability of every state to fully fund its public school systems is under attack.

Bleeding public school budgets to fund alternative schools, such as private secular, religious, or for-profit charter schools, is often done through a school voucher program. Vouchers operate on the assumption that public taxes do not fund public school systems. Politicians who support school vouchers claim that public taxes are used to fund students, not schools; therefore, the money follows the student to whichever school the student chooses.

In June of last year, Maine passed L.D. 1672, a bill requiring all private schools that accept public funds to abide by Maine’s Human Rights Act. That bill requires schools to be held to the same student and faculty human rights protocols that apply to Maine’s public schools. Those protocols ban harassment based on race, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, ethnicity or disability. Students with physical or learning disabilities must also be accorded the same learning environment provided for them in public schools.

One provision that was initially part of the bill granted Maine financial oversight of the $56 million in taxpayer-funded annual support Maine gives to private schools. Unfortunately, that part of the bill was subsequently removed. Why?

Until 2011, Maine had financial oversight of the public taxes it uses to fund private schools, funding intended to support Maine’s public schools. However, requiring state-funded private schools to report how those funds were spent was removed from the Government Oversight Committee in 2011. Why would Maine not want to know how the $56 million in taxpayer-funded annual support of public schools gets spent? That’s over half a billion dollars every 10 years.

The Supreme Court ruled that Maine, and every state, must fund private religious instruction if they fund private non-religious education.

Unfortunately, legislation is moving through Congress right now that will allow all for-profit charter schools nationwide to use a voucher system to dip into every state’s public-school budget and receive federal grants without being required to report their finances.

When the Charter Schools Program, a federal agency that regulates charter schools, proposed new rules that would prevent private, for-profit charter schools from receiving public grant money, and require them to report their finances if they receive any public funds, the lobbyists for the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools opposed those regulations.

The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools wants taxpayer-funded for-profit charter schools to get public grants and state taxpayer funds and not have to report how those funds get spent. This will leave the relevant state with zero financial oversight of what state-funded schools do with public tax dollars.

Think about that. This is the same as extending the decision to force Maine to fund private schools using public school funding, with no financial management to every state and every public school system in America. As a result, public school budgets everywhere will be cut, and the quality of public education across the nation will suffer.

Your vote in the Maine November election will elect two members of Congress, a governor, and a state legislature; all key players in writing state laws. Three candidates for Congress and  one for governor support a robust, fully funded public education system, and the other three support an unregulated private education system funded by taxpayers through school vouchers. The three candidates who support public education, the two Democrats and one independent, also support financial oversight of private schools. The others, all Republicans, do not see the necessity for the Government Oversight Committee to oversee the $56 million Maine currently gives away to private schools every year.

Your vote in the November election will help determine if Maine continues its policy of funding private schools, thereby requiring Maine to fund private religious schools. Your vote will also determine if Maine controls how the money given to private schools gets spent.

I urge you to make your vote in the November election count in the battle to protect a high-quality and fully funded public education that all of Maine’s parents and students expect and deserve. Parents, students, and school faculty are counting on you.

Tom Waddell is president of the Maine Chapter of the Freedom from Religion Foundation. He welcomes comments at [email protected] and ffrfmaine.org.