COLUMBUS — Americans United for Church and State is investigating Ohio’s funding of construction at private religious schools like Temple Christian.
Lawmakers earmarked at least $3 million from the state capital budget this past summer to support construction and renovation projects at religious schools, including a $250,000 grant to Temple Christian for its new elementary school building.
“The provision of these kinds of grants to religious schools violates the religious freedom of Ohio taxpayers by forcing them to support religious instruction in faiths to which they do not subscribe,” attorneys for Americans United wrote in a letter to the state budget office Thursday.
The attorneys allege the grants violate state and federal constitutional protections for religious freedom.
The Washington, D.C., area advocacy firm is asking the Ohio Office of Budget Management to provide records and communications related to the One-Time Strategic Investment Fund’s grants to religious schools, including grant applications, contracts and other documents, after it received several complaints about the grants to religious schools.
“We request that you refrain from distributing the grant funds to religious schools and terminate the grants, or that you restrict the use of the grants to facilities where religious instruction or activity will not occur,” the attorneys wrote.
Americans United attorneys cite the 2002 U.S. Supreme Court ruling which held that taxpayer-funded scholarships could be used for private religious education, because the funds are controlled by parents who decide where to send their child to school.
The group argues Ohio’s grant program deviates from this model by sending money directly to private religious schools chosen by the legislature.
“This is laughable and a lie that the left is using yet again to villify parents who send their students to a school of their choice,” said John Fortney, communications director for the Ohio Senate Majority Caucus.
“The OTSCIF was not a grant as characterized by this progressive group, it was simply a one-time fund that communities and organizations could apply to for help funding projects which would not otherwise qualify for the normal Capital Budget process,” Fortney said. “Hundreds of organizations applied for funding from the $717 million fund which represented an important investment back into neighborhoods across Ohio.”
