AmeriCorps program shouldn't promote religion, AU argues.Americans United for Separation of Church and State Americans United for Separation of Church and State (Americans United or AU for short) is a religious freedom advocacy group in the United States which promotes the separation of church and state, a legal doctrine seen by the AU as being enshrined in the Establishment has urged a federal appeals court to rule against a publicly funded AmeriCorps program that allows teachers to offer religious instruction at sectarian schools. The AmeriCorps program provides stipends called "national service education awards" to individuals for work at certain locations around the country, including religious schools. A U.S. district court ruled July 2 in American Jewish Congress
The American Jewish Congress describes itself as an association of Jewish Americans organized to defend Jewish interests at home and abroad through public policy advocacy, using diplomacy, v. Corporation for National and Community Service The Corporation for National and Community Service, or CNCS, was created as an independent agency of the United States Government by The National and Community Service Trust Act of 1993. that the arrangement violates the First Amendment. The federal government appealed the ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia District of Columbia, federal district (2000 pop. 572,059, a 5.7% decrease in population since the 1990 census), 69 sq mi (179 sq km), on the east bank of the Potomac River, coextensive with the city of Washington, D.C. (the capital of the United States). Circuit. Americans United filed a friend-of-the-court brief Nov. 22, opposing the religious subsidies in the AmeriCorps program. "Here, religious institutions actually use AmeriCorps participants and grant funds for religious instruction and activities," reads AU's brief. "The government has failed to create an effective system for monitoring how the aid is used. The aid consists of religious instructors who have received religious training for faith-based institutions. And the instructors perform core teaching functions at parochial school parochial school (pərō`kēəl), school supported by a religious body. In the United States such schools are maintained by a number of religious groups, including Lutherans, Seventh-day Adventists, Orthodox Jews, Muslims, and ." |
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