Indiana and Ohio give tax-funded vouchers to just about anybody, regardless of income, so the vast majority of voucher money is enriching families whose children already attend private church schools, writes columnist John Schaaf. (Getty Images)
Many Kentucky churches are losing members and money, but they’re hoping taxpayers will vote to bail them out of their financial problems.
Church lobbyists pushed Amendment 2 onto the November ballot, and if their scheme passes, hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars will flow into questionable religious schools operated in church basements across the commonwealth.
Judging by what’s happening in other states, Kentucky would likely pay churches at least $8,000 in public money for each child in their schools, but many of the “teachers” in the schools will be untrained volunteers recruited from church congregations.
Unfortunately, the schools will have no accountability when those “teachers” fail to teach and students fail to learn.
Paul Prather, the insightful writer who is pastor of Bethesda Church in Montgomery County, recently discussed data showing that only about 5% of Americans regularly attend church. (“Regularly” means attending services at least three out of four weeks.)