ACLU Sues State of NJ Over Funding for Princeton Theological Seminary and Lakewood Rabbinical School
The American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, the national ACLU, and Americans United for Separation of Church and State filed a lawsuit today to stop the state of New Jersey from awarding more than $11 million in taxpayer funds to the Yet Beth Medrash Govoha rabbinical school in Lakewood and to Princeton Theological Seminary.
The groups also filed a petition asking the court to immediately prevent the state from distributing grants to the two higher education institutions dedicated to religious training and instruction.
“We support freedom of religion, however, the government has no business funding religious ministries,” said Ed Barocas, legal director of the ACLU of New Jersey. “Taxpayers should not foot the bill to train clergy or provide religious instruction, but the state is attempting to do exactly that.”
On April 29, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s administration released a list of 176 college construction projects it intends to aid with money from a voter-approved bond. The New Jersey Constitution forbids such taxpayer funds from supporting ministries or places of worship.
Beth Medrash Govoha, an orthodox Jewish rabbinical school in Lakewood, is slated to receive $10.6 million from the state to pay for the construction of a new library and academic center. Princeton Theological Seminary, a Presbyterian seminary, is slated to receive $645,323 from the state.
“Taxpayers should not be forced to pay for the training of clergy,” said Alex J. Luchenitser, associate legal director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. “These grants plainly violate the separation of church and state enshrined in the New Jersey Constitution.”
The ACLU also contends that giving public money to Beth Medrash Govoha violates the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination. The school is identified in federal records as a single-sex school with only male students. According to state records, its entire student body of 6,538 students was all-male in 2012, and all 79 members of its faculty were male during 2011.
“The state of New Jersey has an important role to play in providing financial support for institutions of higher learning in our state, but public money should not be used to fund schools that are not open and welcoming to all students in New Jersey ,” said Udi Ofer, executive director of the ACLU of New Jersey. “State funding of higher education should not be done at the expense of the separation of church and state.”
The lawsuit was filed in Superior Court in Trenton. The plaintiffs in the case are the ACLU-NJ, the Unitarian Universalist Legislative Ministry of New Jersey and Gloria Schor Andersen, a Voorhees Township resident who has been a public-school and a Hebrew School teacher. Andersen is also speaker-at-large for the Delaware Valley Chapter of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
“As a member of the clergy, I recognize the important responsibility that faith groups have in training their next generation of leaders,” said the Rev. Craig Hirshberg, executive director of UULMNJ. “However, their religious studies should not be funded by taxpayers. When the government financially supports religious groups, it provides privileges to particular religions over others and diverts designated public funds away from programs that should benefit all citizens.”
The New Jersey Legislature has until June 28 to reject the grants. Some lawmakers have raised similar concerns about funding religious ministries and pressed the state for more information about its selection process. The ACLU has filed several open records requests with the state to learn more about the nature of the schools receiving funding and how the grants were awarded. The state failed to release scoring sheets and other records documenting how it determined who should receive the grants.
“These grants fly in the face of important state safeguards that protect the religious liberty of all New Jersey taxpayers,” said Daniel Mach, director of the ACLU Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief.
Krystal Knapp is the founding editor of Planet Princeton. Follow her on Twitter @krystalknapp. She can be reached via email at editor AT planetprinceton.com. Send all letters to the editor and press releases to that email address.
Thank you ACLU for your voice and representation. I certainly did not vote for my hard earned money to be given to such specialized schools, that already receive tons of grants. The Lakewood public school system has been minimized to the point of abandonment and failure.
I think you are putting way to much emphasis on your taxes. you are not the only tax payer in NJ. and many of the taxpayers in NJ support this funding.
Not sure why you made reference to Lakewood public schools, but your comment reveals your ignorance. The state provides funding for each town based on the public school enrollment. Yet the state mandates that townships pay for all children’s special education needs and busing.
In the town of Lakewood, that has less then 20% of the students in public school, this means that the state requires them to pay for all of the 35,000 childrens busing and special education requirements, but only funds them as if they had 5,000 students. This results in an underfunding by the state to the tune of $20 million dollars.
the result is that Lakewood is actually underfunded by the state relative to all the other school districts in NJ.