Swans Island’s reimbursement policy for religious school ruition draws fire

SWANS ISLAND – The Maine Civil Liberties Union is concerned that islanders have blurred the lines of separation of church and state, a staff attorney said Thursday.

Residents voted earlier this month at the annual town meeting to reimburse the families of students who attend private religious schools, a decision made against the advice of the town attorney and an attorney from the Maine Municipal Association.

“We think the decision was troubling and that public money should not be used to fund religious education,” said Zachary Heiden, staff attorney at the MCLU. “We’re very concerned that public money is being used to fund specific religious groups. We’re very committed to having government-free religion.”

But a lawyer representing lobsterman Jason Joyce, the islander who drafted and proposed the town’s new “nondiscrimination family subsidy policy,” said that the vote was legal – and that he was confident he could win a fight against the MCLU that would prove it.

“We sincerely hope that the Maine Civil Liberties Union does challenge this, because we are 100 percent certain that it is constitutional,” said Stephen Whiting, Maine state director of the American Center for Law and Justice, a Christian legal foundation founded by evangelist Pat Robertson. “Once we get a court to say that, we would like to take this from town to town throughout the state of Maine and get all the towns to institute similar policies.”

At issue is the question of whether or not a town can indirectly fund religious education by reimbursing families for tuition. A Maine state law statute explicitly prohibits paying public funds for tuition at religious, or sectarian, schools.

“It has nothing to do with paying tuition directly to private religious schools,” Whiting said of the island’s policy. “It has to do with paying the families.”

The MCLU has been contacted by a few islanders who have registered concern about the new policy, but the organization has not yet decided to take action against it, according to Heiden.

“We’re trying to be very deliberate and not rush anything,” he said. “We are talking to any resident who has contacted us. People have, and they’re troubled by the vote, as we are.”

Joyce also has heard from folks interested in the policy – but in a good way, according to his attorney.

“We have had a couple other people from other towns contact us and inquire about the possibility of us doing a similar thing in their towns,” Whiting said.