WASHINGTON — A coalition of religious groups is waging an intensive lobbying effort to remove a nondiscrimination provision from President Biden’s ambitious prekindergarten and child care plans, fearing it would disqualify their programs from receiving a huge new infusion of federal money.
The fight could have major consequences for a central component of Mr. Biden’s $1.85 trillion social policy bill, which the House is to consider as soon as this week. It could go a long way toward determining which programs, neighborhoods and families can benefit from the landmark early-childhood benefits established in the legislation, given that child care centers and preschools affiliated with religious organizations make up a substantial share of those offered in the United States — serving as many as 53 percent of families, according to a survey last year by the Bipartisan Policy Center.
This provision is a standard in many federal laws and would require that all providers adhere to federal anti-discrimination statutes. The religious organizations whose child care programs are currently exempted from such laws argue that it would effectively prohibit many of their providers from taking part, while civil rights advocates argue that it is long past the time for such institutions.
Some faith groups are asking lawmakers to change or scrap the nondiscrimination language. They argue that it would effectively shut them out from the new federal program unless their organization made significant changes. It could also prevent federal funds from being used for programs that refuse to hire gay employees, give preference to applicants who are of their faith, or fail to renovate their facilities to accommodate students with disabilities.
According to the organizations, the rules would require them to make a choice between participating in the child-care initiative and continuing to teach religious material, convene all-boys/all-girls programs, or give preference in hiring or admitting people of their religion.
The groups — including the American leaders of the Catholic Church and one of the country’s largest Orthodox Jewish groups — contend that unless the bill is rewritten, they will be forced to turn away families that want to use benefits from the bill to send children to their centers.
“It will be detrimental to our ability to participate,” said Jennifer Daniels, the associate director for public policy at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. “It would impact our ability to stick with our Catholic mission in a variety of ways. We’ve worked really hard to make our concerns known.”
Their efforts appear to be gaining some momentum in Senate, where Joe Manchin III from West Virginia (a key Democratic swing vote on social policy bills) has privately told Democrats that he wants religious programs to fully participate in child care initiative.
However, Democrats in the House insist that the provision is retained in order to prevent federal funds from flowing to organizations that discriminate. The Congressional Black Caucus and Robert C. Scott, a Democrat from Virginia and chairman of Education and Labor Committee, are the defenders.
The main conflict over child care programs and preschool is still to be resolved before social policy legislation can be passed by Congress and signed into law by Mr. Biden.
“The Build Back Better Act must not allow government-funded discrimination — in employment or in the provision of services to participants — in publicly funded programs,” Mr. Scott and Representative Joyce Beatty, Democrat of Ohio and the chairwoman of the Black Caucus, wrote in a previously undisclosed letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
“We believe that allowing such discrimination financed with public funds collected from all taxpayers is wrong,” the lawmakers wrote. “We are asking you to oppose any effort to remove or change the nondiscrimination provisions included in the child care and universal preschool provisions of the Build Back Better Act.”
The bill would provide nearly $400 million to help states create affordable child care programs and universal prekindergarten in six years. It is intended to ensure that the vast majority of families — those with four-person households earning up to $300,000 — spend no more than 7 percent of their income on child care. Families that earn under 75 percent of the state’s median income would pay nothing.
It explicitly includes religious organisations.
“Nothing in this section shall preclude the use of such certificates for sectarian child care services if freely chosen by the parent,” it says. “For the purposes of this section, child care certificates shall be considered federal financial assistance to the provider.”
The bill would make major changes in how the federal government deals with institutions that receive aid to care for small children. Low-income families have had funds from the Child Care and Development Block Grant program for many decades. These funds can be used at a variety if child care centers. They are not considered direct beneficiaries of federal funds so they are not subject to discrimination laws.
Similar situations exist for religious elementary schools, which receive money from local school systems to educate students with low income.
Mr. Scott’s legislation would categorize any prekindergarten or child care center that participates in the new program as a federal financial recipient, requiring it to either comply with nondiscrimination laws or turn away families.
The bill would also prohibit any child care provider from using the funds to perform work on “buildings or facilities that are used primarily for sectarian instruction or religious worship.”
Senate Democrats state that they are willing to work with religious organizations that object but won’t agree to anything that would allow religious providers discriminate against families who want to enroll their children in their facilities. They note that some religious organizations — particularly those with a less conservative worldview — have no problem with the bill, including a few that signed a letter urging its passage.
Civil rights groups have resisted efforts to eliminate the anti-discrimination clause, saying that any institution wishing to receive federal funding must adhere to such laws.
“Who do they want to shut out? Is it the lesbian mom you want to shut out?” said Liz King, the director of the Education Equity Program at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. “Is it the children with autism you want to shut out? Federal funds cannot be used for discrimination since at least 1964. No one should have to subsidize their own discrimination.”
Religious organizations that have avoided federal mandates for decades say the legislation could be detrimental to their educational programs.
“As a general rule, Catholic schools and most nonpublic schools purposefully avoid federal financial recipient status, because it triggers a whole host of federal regulatory obligations with which nonpublic schools are not currently required to comply,” Michael B. Sheedy, the executive director of the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops, wrote in a letter last week to Senator Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida. “The provisions of most obvious concern include nondiscrimination provisions related to sexual orientation and gender identity that could create religious freedom issues for religious providers.”
According to a source familiar with his comments, Mr. Manchin raised this issue during a closed-door meeting with Senate Democrats. He emphasized that the church, and other faith-based organizations, play a critical role in providing care for many West Virginia families.
Mr. Manchin suggested that a small amount of funding would help religiously affiliated institutions provide quality pre-K education. The person said that they should be eligible for any available funds. Two people familiar with the private discussion said that the position was widely supported by the other Democratic senators present. They spoke on condition of anonymity. They said that Democrats did not discuss the details of the dispute in their discussion.
The debate is the latest skirmish in the battle over the role of religious organizations in participating in government programs — and how to include them while ensuring federal nondiscrimination protections that may conflict with their practices and beliefs.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 made it unlawful for an employer to discriminate against someone because of the “individual’s race, color, religion, sex or national origin.” It exempted church groups and faith-based organizations, but the act made no mention of whether such provisions could be applied if the groups were to accept federal funding.
Through a series of executive order, President George W. Bush made it possible for churches and other faith-based organisations to receive federal funds while avoiding certain anti-discrimination legislations.
The Orthodox Union and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops want these practices to remain in place. They have made it clear to Congress that they would not accept money for child care programs or preschools unless the bill explicitly exempts them against anti-discrimination laws such as Title IX which protects against discrimination based on sex and the Americans With Disabilities Act. This, they argue, could mean costly upgrades to older buildings, including houses where worship.
“We appreciate that key Senate Democrats have told us that they agree that churches and synagogues must be included, but the devil is indeed in the details,” said Nathan J. Diament, the public policy director at the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America. “Right now, the way the bill text is drafted, there are details that will deter, if not make it impossible for, faith-based providers to participate.”
Source: NY Times
