School vouchers shouldn’t fund religious education, says group

Students getting taxpayer-funded vouchers has doubled

Where there’s state-funded vouchers to fund private education in Wisconsin, there’s bound to be state-funded vouchers going to fund religious education.

And that’s wrong, says Patrick Elliott, an attorney with the Madison-based Freedom From Religion Foundation.

Even if the religious education in a school isn’t expressly mandated, “it’s ingrained into the instruction,” Elliott said. “Besides just religious class, is the school attending religious services? Are there prayers? Are there religious icons in the schools?”

Elliott’s group is fighting the voucher program in the state, though he admits the courts don’t agree with their objections at this point.

Meanwhile, the number of students getting taxpayer-funded vouchers to attend private schools in Wisconsin nearly doubled this year.