William Fisher

NEW YORK, Sep 23 2005 (IPS) — Advocates for separation of church and state took a major hit yesterday as the U.S. House of Representatives voted to allow “faith-based” groups to discriminate on the basis of religion in hiring personnel to participate in the Head Start education programme for poor children.

The 220-196 vote on an amendment to the 40-year-old programme was largely along party lines.

Aimed at preparing academically disadvantaged youngsters and their families to enter school, Head Start is a federally funded pre-school programme that operates nationwide. Although sometimes sponsored by religious groups, it is a secular programme open to children of all faith backgrounds.

Under the amendment approved today, religious groups that sponsor Head Start programmes would be able to restrict their hiring to members of their own faith. This would principally affect Head Start teachers, administrators, parent volunteers and support personnel.

The original Head Start Act contained specific protections for teachers, staff and volunteers against employment discrimination. Yesterday’s amendment would repeal these protections. It would, for example, let a Catholic church that provides Head Start services employ only Catholic child-care workers.

The amendment was introduced by first-term Republican Rep. Charles Boustany Jr., a retired heart surgeon. Boustany made history when he became the first Republican to win Louisiana’s 7th Congressional District seat in 2004.

The vote came over the objections of more than 100 religious, education, civil rights, civil liberties and social service providers, and the National Head Start Association, representing more than a million children, 200,000 staff and 2,700 Head Start programmes in the United States. These groups had mounted a major campaign to lobby against the measure.

On the other side of the debate was a large group of conservative and religious organisations, including the Heritage Foundation, James Dobson’s Focus on the Family, and many others sympathetic to the religious right.

Heritage Foundation researchers Grace Smith and Jonathan Butcher wrote Thursday, “Congress has the opportunity to protect faith-based organisations’ hiring freedom this week as it moves toward reauthorisation of Head Start.”

“The right of faith-based groups to take religious beliefs into account in their hiring practices is fundamental to religious liberty and should be protected when a faith-based group works with the government to provide social services through programs like Head Start.”

But the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, an advocacy group that opposes federal funding for faith-based organisations, called the vote “shameful”.

“Publicly funded programmes ought to hire the best qualified applicant. I am outraged that House members have inserted religious discrimination into a program like Head Start,” he said.

“Since Head Start does not teach religion, there is no need for religious groups to engage in discriminatory hiring practices. Head Start staff,” he said, “should be chosen on their ability to work successfully with disadvantaged children.”

Terri Ann Schroeder, a senior lobbyist for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), told IPS, “Head Start’s current civil liberties provisions work – protecting participants from religious discrimination, while allowing faith-based groups to contribute to the Head Start programme. Repealing these provisions is a significant step backwards for civil liberties, potentially depriving children of quality educators on a solely religious basis.”

She added, “Religious discrimination has no place in America, and the Supreme Court has agreed. Congress must keep these civil rights protections in place.”

Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, the Republican chairman of the House Education Committee, rejected appeals to withdraw the religion-based amendment. Without a change in the law, Boehner said, ”Faith-based organisations are forced to relinquish their protected rights to hire individuals who share their beliefs.”

The Rev. Tim Simpson of The Christian Alliance takes issue with this viewpoint. He told IPS, “The right has tried to kill Head Start for years. When they failed at that, they did the next best thing, which is to turn the programme into pork to reward their religious followers.”

“Instead of assuring that America’s children get the best programme possible, this legislation simply assures America’s right-wing religious institutions a place at the public trough where they can feed, while the taxpayer pays for them to promote their beliefs, in contravention of the Constitutional protections against the government’s establishment of religion.”

Since President George W. Bush launched his Faith-Based Initiative shortly after taking office in 2001, there have been numerous efforts in Congress to permit taxpayer funds to be used to finance church-related social and educational programmes. These have usually been passed by the House of Representatives but rejected by the Senate.

As a result, Pres. Bush has had to resort to using executive orders rather than legislation to initiate faith-based grant programs in various federal agencies.

The House version of the Head Start reauthorisation will now have to be reconciled with Senate legislation, which does not contain the faith-based employment provisions.

Opponents of the measure say they are confident the Senate will not allow the House language concerning religion to survive the House-Senate conference committee.

Head Start’s non-discrimination requirements were signed into law by Pres. Richard Nixon in 1972 and renewed by Pres. Ronald Reagan. Many religiously affiliated groups participate in Head Start programmes and comply with the same civil rights provisions as their secular counterparts.

The programme has not been without other non-religious controversies. For example, educators and child development authorities remain divided about its effectiveness, pointing to a continuing knowledge gap between poor children who have participated in Head Start and non-disadvantaged children who have not.