The Conversation Article Rating

State funds for students at religious schools? Supreme Court says 'yes' in Maine case - but consequences could go beyond

Jun 22, 2022 View Original Article
  • Bias Rating

    -6% Center

  • Reliability

    N/AN/A

  • Policy Leaning

    -36% Medium Liberal

  • Politician Portrayal

    -38% Negative

Bias Score Analysis

The A.I. bias rating includes policy and politician portrayal leanings based on the author’s tone found in the article using machine learning. Bias scores are on a scale of -100% to 100% with higher negative scores being more liberal and higher positive scores being more conservative, and 0% being neutral.

Sentiments

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Bias Meter

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

58% : In a 6-3 order, the court held that Maine's requirement that tuition assistance payments be used at "nonsectarian" schools violated the free exercise clause of the First Amendment because parents could not send their children to the schools of their choice.
56% : On June 21, 2022, the court ruled that parents in rural districts lacking public high schools, but who receive state aid to send their children to private schools instead, can use that money for tuition at schools with faith-based curricula.
55% : According to the First Amendment, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof" - an idea courts often interpreted as requiring "a wall of separation between church and state."
52% : In Everson, however, the Supreme Court upheld the law as not violating the First Amendment because children, not their schools, were the primary beneficiaries.
49% : In areas without access to public schools, Maine law allowed students to attend other public or private schools at public expense, but not faith-based ones.
45% :Mainers' educationMaine's Constitution mandates the creation of public schools.
44% : The state requires approved schools to be nonsectarian, "in accordance with the First Amendment of the United States Constitution."
44% : But the Supreme Court held that both "status-based" and "use-based" refusals to allow state aid for students at religious schools are "offensive to the Free Exercise Clause."As often occurs in such high-profile cases, the dissenters disagreed strongly.
35% : Based on its most recent judgments, many legal analysts maintain that the current court is increasingly sympathetic to claims that religious liberties are being threatened but, in so doing, is creating too close of a relationship between religion and government.

*Our bias meter rating uses data science including sentiment analysis, machine learning and our proprietary algorithm for determining biases in news articles. Bias scores are on a scale of -100% to 100% with higher negative scores being more liberal and higher positive scores being more conservative, and 0% being neutral. The rating is an independent analysis and is not affiliated nor sponsored by the news source or any other organization.

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