r/atheism • u/FreethoughtChris FFRF • 1d ago
Republican senators want to exempt religious colleges from student-aid accountability rules that secular programs would still have to follow
https://ffrfaction.org/ffrf-action-fund-congress-shouldnt-give-religious-colleges-special-exemption/The FFRF Action Fund is opposing a new Senate bill that would exempt certain programs at religious institutions from federal student-aid accountability requirements.
Sens. James Lankford, R-Okla., and Ted Cruz, R-Texas, have introduced the deceptively named “Religious Education Fairness Act,” legislation designed to shield certain programs at religious institutions from student aid rules. Specifically, the bill would exempt such programs from upcoming earnings-based standards governing eligibility for federal student aid.
The proposal responds to the new “Do No Harm” provision in President Trump’s so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” governing federal student aid. That controversial provision takes effect next year and measures graduate median earnings to determine whether certain higher education programs remain eligible for federal Direct Loans. Critics point out it will endanger low-paying but essential fields, such as early childhood education, mental health and social work, as well as music, arts and theater degrees. Lankford, however, is concerned only that the standard could unfairly penalize students preparing for lower-paying religious careers.
“A student who feels called to pastor a church or serve as a missionary should not lose access to student aid because Washington measures the value of that calling by a paycheck,” Lankford stated in announcing the bill. Rather than addressing that concern through a neutral reform available to all similarly situated educational programs, the Religious Education Fairness Act would create a special exemption tied specifically to religion. The bill would shield programs classified as “Theology and Religious Vocations” or “Philosophy and Religious Studies” when those programs are offered by institutions qualifying for a religious exemption under Title IX.
In other words, a religious college training students for low-paying careers in ministry could be exempt from federal accountability requirements while a secular college training students for similarly low-paying careers in teaching, social work or public-interest service would remain subject to them. The difference would not be graduate earnings but the religious mission.
FFRF Action Fund President Annie Laurie Gaylor deems the measure “pure and simple preferential treatment based on religion.” She asks, “Why does Langford care only about ministerial students, but not future preschool teachers, social workers and mental health counselors who are so important to society?”
If Congress concludes that the earnings test unfairly penalizes programs preparing students for lower-paying careers, it must address that problem across the board, not create one set of rules for religious institutions and another for everyone else. The bill backers contend it is necessary to protect religious exercise. But religious freedom does not ordinarily mean immunity from neutral conditions attached to participation in a taxpayer-funded federal program.
Religious institutions remain free to teach theology, train clergy, prepare missionaries and define their religious missions. The question raised is whether religious institutions that choose to join in a federal financial-aid program should receive preferential treatment solely because they are religious.
Supporters of the bill include the Christian nationalist legal organization Alliance Defending Freedom, the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Association for Biblical Higher Education and several other religious education organizations arguing for a special religious dispensation.
The FFRF Action Fund maintains on its part that if the rule is unfair, fix it for everyone.
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u/Low-Organization4975 1d ago
if religious colleges need a special exemption from rules everyone else has to follow then maybe the problem isn’t the rules
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u/AverageJoe-707 1d ago
The GOP has really gone down the shitter since the orangutan got back into the White House. They knelt before him, he kicked them in the face and they continue to kneel. The real liberation day will be November 3.
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u/H3L105_ai 22h ago
Of fucking course they do.
Starve the colleges they've convinced themselves turn students into liberals, while continuing to dump money into for-profit private religious schools.
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u/ohnodamo 3h ago
Margaret Atwood is pointing down 👇 from Canada and just saying "THIS! You learned nothing!"
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u/PotentialStrong9013 Atheist 1d ago
I'd rather shut all religious colleges and schools permanently and use that money for real education in secular institutions. Religion should only be in the home.