Washington, USA - The Supreme Court on Monday let stand a lower court ruling that allows use of federal funds in placing young teachers in religious schools.
Lawyers for the American Jewish Congress had alleged that the federal AmeriCorps grant program crossed the line between church and state by paying $4,725 in financial aid to teachers in some of the nation's neediest secular and religious schools.
They had urged the justices to use the case to reinforce "crucially important constitutional limits of government sponsorship and funding of religious indoctrination." The court declined, without comment.
Last year, the federal appeals court based in Washington ruled that the government was not using the grants to promote religion or as incentives for participants to teach religion.
In doing so, the appeals court reversed a trial judge's finding that the program lacked clear criteria for selecting the groups to train the teachers and had failed to monitor properly whether the organizations used government money for religion-related expenses.
AmeriCorps grants are administered by 28 secular and six "faith-based" programs that train teachers, who are placed in public and private schools. All of the religious groups identified themselves with Christian faiths, and most were Roman Catholic. The groups receive $400 for each participant they train _ a small amount of money that the appellate court said fell far short of the actual training costs.
The numbers of teachers involved is also small, according to a government filing in the case. Of the 19,000 people who sought the grants in 2001 _ the latest data available _ 2,000 chose religious groups as their sponsors and only 565 worked in private schools.
Teachers must fulfill a service requirement of 1,700 hours of secular instruction to receive federal money. They are allowed to teach religious subjects and participate in religious activities, such as leading students in prayer, while working at a religious school. But they cannot count the time spent in such religious activities toward the 1,700-hour requirement.
Chief Justice John Roberts did not participate in the case.
The case is American Jewish Congress v. Corporation for National and Community Service, 05-282.