`Charitable Choice' Added To Education Bill In House.

Supporters of "charitable choice," a controversial legislative proposal that gives federal funds to churches to provide social services, have a new target for their scheme: American education.

Charitable choice was first introduced by Sen. John Ashcroft (R-Mo.) as part of the 1996 federal Welfare Reform Act. Subsequent attempts to expand the program have specifically exempted education. Now supporters of the measure wish to remove that exemption altogether.

Rep. Mark Souder (R-Ind.) added charitable choice provisions to the "Literacy Involves Families Together Act" (H.R. 3222), legislation that finances literacy programs for children. The House Education Committee approved Souder's changes, and the bill is now awaiting action on the floor.

Additionally, supporters of the provision are attempting to add charitable choice to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), the largest bipartisan education spending bill at the federal level.

"Charitable choice raises a hornets' nest of policy and constitutional problems in providing welfare services; adding it to education programs is truly misguided," said Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. "These latest developments are a disastrous step backwards."

When first introduced in 1996, charitable choice changed existing law by permitting federal funds to go to "pervasively sectarian" institutions, including churches and other houses of worship, to administer social services on behalf of the government. Critics charge that the policy violates church-state separation, permits federally funded employment discrimination and adversely affects religious institutions by subjecting them to government regulations.