ACTION ALERT
Voucher extension proposed: Tell your Senators to live up to their words
Update: Senate Democratic leaders stayed true to their word and blocked this extension.
April 19, 2006 - The Senate is expected to take up during the week of April 24 a $350 million proposal to extend a one-year voucher program for students displaced by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The proposal is expected to be introduced by Senators Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-TX) and Mary Landrieu (D-LA). When the U.S. Senate voted last year to provide federal funds to private schools (including religious schools), Senator Kennedy (D-MA) and others gave public assurances that this funding would only be for the 2005-2006 school year. The Secular Coalition for America opposed that bill because we do not believe that an emergency negates the need for separation of church and state. (Parents are welcome to send their children to religious education on their own dime, but not with federal subsidization.) Now, the Senate is considering extending the voucher program for displaced students into the 2006-2007 school year.
Take a Stand: Call both of your U.S. Senators, and tell them to live up to their words: Do not extend vouchers beyond the 2005-2006 school year! Tell them that you oppose the Hutchinson-Landrieu voucher proposal, which has nothing to do with education and everything to do with the politics of destroying the separation of church and state.
You can contact these Senators through their websites or through the Legislator/Media Lookup by Zip Code.