Lord Have Mercy!!! What is happening in our country? I trust this won't pass here in Wisconsin...(hint, hint!!)
Hedi
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Religiously oriented groups that provide federal preschool programs could refuse to hire teachers based on their faith, a House panel voted Thursday in approving a scaled-back overhaul of Head Start.
The bill would give eight states -- not all 50, as the Bush administration wanted -- greater control over how they run the nation's preschool program for the poor.
Overall, the bill aims to expand academic expectations for children, require more teachers to have a college education and improve monitoring to ensure students emerge ready for kindergarten.
But the religion provision, added Thursday by the House Education and Workforce panel on education reform, is the latest to cause a partisan divide over a program that has helped roughly 20 million children develop literacy and social skills.
The bill has an anti-discrimination clause, but it would not apply to groups in hiring people whose religion could affect the organization's work. The idea is backed by a court ruling and intended to keep religious groups from dropping out of the federal program, said Rep. Mike Castle, R-Delaware, the bill's sponsor.
"Faith-based organizations cannot be expected to sustain their religious mission without the ability to employ individuals who ... practice their faith, because it's that faith that motivates them to serve," Castle said.
Democrats failed to get to strip the language.
"To have legislation that would try and convince faith-based institutions and organizations that they ought to discriminate -- I don't understand it. It's amazing to me," said Rep. Danny Davis, D-Illinois.
The bill, approved in a party-line vote, now goes to the full committee. Head Start is up for reauthorization, meaning Congress and the president can rewrite it.
The bill's pilot program would allow eight states to take federal Head Start money and merge it with their own spending to better coordinate preschool services. It would be open only to states that have shown a financial commitment to preschool and that agree not to drop their own spending if chosen. States would also have to prove students show improvement.
Critics fear a declining federal role will drop standards, and that Head Start will lose its comprehensive mission of health, nutrition and parental involvement.
"We appreciate the fact that they have limited it, but we are still opposed to it," said Maureen Thompson, a consultant for the National Head Start Association. "We think it is the first step in dismantling Head Start as it has worked and served children for 38 years."
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