By Neece
Last night Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) filed a D.C. voucher amendment to the second jobs bill under consideration by the Senate. The D.C. voucher program uses taxpayer funds to pay for parents to send their children to private religious schools. The program is called the “D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program,” but a 2007 government report found that these vouchers do not give D.C. students seeking a private school education sufficient secular choices, forcing them to attend religious schools or remain in the failing public school system.
By design, voucher programs aid struggling Christian schools. A July 2009 report by Rutgers University on the D.C. voucher program concluded that the way the voucher program is structured “essentially push[es] students into Christian Association and Catholic schools, pricing out independent (non-religious) schools and Hebrew schools.”
By continuing this program, those of us who do not wish to subsidize someone else’s church will…
By Neece
The Center for Inquiry is accepting disaster-relief donations through its S.H.A.R.E. program to support those providing care to the survivors of the 7.0 earthquake that struck Jan. 12 near the capital city of Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
All donations—100 percent with no operating costs retained—will be sent directly to the secular aid group Doctors Without Borders , which suffered the loss of all three of its medical facilities and is working against difficulties to provide the basics of first-aid care and stabilization.
The needs of those who’ve lost their family members, their homes, and their livelihoods will be very great. Your assistance will make a huge difference for the victims of this tragic disaster. Please join us and other humanists and skeptics as we help those in need in this time of crisis.
A contribution of any amount would be greatly appreciated by everyone at the Center for Inquiry. Thank you…
By Neece
PZ Myers talked about science education in America the other day. It was based on a scientific review of the country regarding evolution and the science curriculum standards of each state. Here is a handy map from the review:
As you can see, West Virginia got an F. There was a review in 2000 by another group (see the review for links) where we also got an F. So over 9 years, we have made barely any improvements in science standards regarding evolution. Apparently there is no mention of human evolution at all, but a reference to some biological evolution. Unfortunately the F grade means there is either creationist jargon included and/or disclaimers.
Unfortunately the information on West Virginia in this review is sparse. But in their appendix, is a table that shows the grade for various aspects of evolution in state science standards. Here is…
By Neece
This wasteful and egregious threat to the First Amendment has popped up in several places recently. Over at Heaving Dead Cats, there is a good post explaining what Congressman Dan Lungren is proposing in a resolution, along with links for the full text of the bill and a history of the slogan in question, among others.
This also came to my attention through the West Virginia Atheists group, which copied a press release from American Atheists. Apparently, according to American Atheists, A House committee has already approved the religious slogans!
Govtrack has the status of the resolution, along with lots of information as well.
Back at Heaving Dead Cats, there is a link to Take Action Now that you can follow, which is from the Secular Coalition for America. There you can edit and send a letter to your Representatives telling them to vote…
Last night Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) filed a D.C. voucher amendment to the second jobs bill under consideration by the Senate. The D.C. voucher program uses taxpayer funds to pay for parents to send their children to private religious schools. The program is called the “D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program,” but a 2007 government report found that these vouchers do not give D.C. students seeking a private school education sufficient secular choices, forcing them to attend religious schools or remain in the failing public school system. 
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