A basic rule of American church-state law is that government must treat all religions equally. If a benefit is extended to one faith group, it must be made available to all. A law that establishes a special program but limits it to Christian churches will not pass constitutional muster.
Amazingly, the attorney general of Florida does not seem to understand this.
James Uthmeier, who is, let’s remember, the top legal official in the state, recently went on a tear because he is apparently just learning that Islamic schools are taking part in the state’s private school voucher program.
Just to back up a minute: Florida has had a voucher program for decades. Early on, the plan was limited to low-income residents and students with certain types of learning challenges, but two years ago, state lawmakers made it universal. Now, basically any student in the Sunshine State can get a voucher to attend a private school.
Most of the private schools taking part in the program are Christian, but, not surprisingly, other religions are getting in on the game, among them Islamic academies.
Some Muslims who run Islamic schools made videos focusing on what their schools offer and boosting the idea of Islamic education generally. An anti-Muslim activist posted these videos to X/Twitter and, with absolutely no evidence, accused the schools of promoting terrorism and sharia, a set of Islamic principles that some Muslim countries have codified into law (and that Christian Nationalists often use as a bogeyman to justify anti-Muslim bias).
Uthmeier shared the tweet, as did Florida Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson. Simpson, who used to be president of the state Senate, said he supports vouchers but insisted that schools “that indoctrinate Sharia law should not be a part of our taxpayer-funded school voucher program.”
When the Orlando Sentinel asked Uthmeier for evidence that these schools were teaching sharia law, it got no response.
Rabbi Merrill Shapiro, past president of Americans United’s Board of Trustees and a Florida resident, properly labeled this as “bigoted.” In an interview with the Sentinel, Shapiro added, “Sadly, bigotry against Islam is epidemic.”
But Shapiro went on to make an important point: This would not be an issue if that state hadn’t created the voucher plan.
“It would be far better for all of us if the government would stay out of the religious school business and leave our taxpayer dollars for what they are intended, not to support religious education,” Shapiro said.
Well said. There are a lot of problems with vouchers, chief among them that they violate the separation of church and state and present an existential threat to our public schools. But Florida officials can hardly complain about what’s going on there. They created this plan probably hoping to boost private Christian education, and now some non-Christian religious schools are taking part, as they have a legal right to do.
Uthmeier needs some remedial instruction in the law regarding equal treatment. He also needs to learn that no amount of bigotry or ill-considered, patently unconstitutional laws that would ban Islamic schools from the voucher program will get Florida out of the mess it has created with education.
There’s only one surefire way to do that: Ensure that public funds pay only for public schools.
