Legality of after-schoolfunding is in question

Web posted September 11, 1999

By James Salzer
Morris News Service

ATLANTA -- The state Board of Education is asking Attorney General Thurbert Baker to determine if it's legal for church-based after-school programs to get grant money.

Mr. Baker, in a recent opinion, raised questions about whether other grants approved by state lawmakers that wind up going to religious organizations are legal.

``Based on what we have in front of us, it appears grants to sectarian organizations violate the constitution,'' said Board of Education member Cathy Henson of Marietta.

Last month, the board approved more than $3 million worth of after-school reading grants to private providers, despite complaints that the program was poorly managed.

Among the programs that received funding last school year, and are scheduled to get grants again this year, are those run by the Greater Tabernacle of Faith in Clayton County, Trinity Chapel Church of God and In His Image Ministry in Cobb County, St. Bartholomew Episcopal Church in DeKalb County, the Lutheran Church of the Atonement in Fulton County, Atlanta Korean Baptist Church in Gwinnett County, First Baptist Church New Beginning in Houston County, Bethel Baptist Church of Barnesville, and Cedar Spring Baptist Church in Polk County.

Added to the list this year was Good Hope Baptist Church of Richmond County, which would receive $72,000 for Reading Challenge program.

Combined, those programs would get about $400,000 in after-school grants this year.

The Department of Community Affairs held up distribution of the grants statewide until the attorney general could issue an opinion requested by the department's Commissioner Jim Higdon.

In Augusta, more than two dozen entities slated to receive state grants in July still have not gotten them because the department wants the city to make sure the agencies are providing a ``substantial'' benefit to the county and that they are not religious groups.

City Attorney Jim Wall said he has spent much time on the Augusta grants and is satisfied that most of them are legal.

``There are only a couple (about which) questions are raised as to their relationship with a church entity, and those organizations are being required that they are not organized for a religious purpose,'' Mr. Wall said.

Beulah Grove Community Resource Center Inc. and Good Hope Social Service Ministry Inc. are two that must certify they are nonsectarian.

Despite the questions raised by Mr. Baker, Mr. Wall said he is confident the grants for after-school tutorial programs in Augusta, such as those to the Macedonia Connection and Jack & Jill Outreach do comply.

To some taxpayers, like Atlanta lawyer Robert Proctor, most of the grants are ``a lot of pork barrel.''

``It's very problematic,'' said Mr. Proctor, former chairman of the Southeastern Legal Foundation, a conservative public-interest law firm. We do have a limitation. We're not supposed to be giving money away to people.

``And when you give money to a church to do an after-school program or whatever they're doing, unless it's pursuant to some legal binding contract to perform a governmental service, then I think it probably has a good chance of running afoul of that constitutional limitation.''

If an agency is challenged and found to have received a grant illegally it would have to repay the money, and if it could not, the state would look to the city government for repayment, Mr. Wall said.

Staff Writer Sylvia Cooper contributed to this article.

James Salzer is based in Atlanta and can be reached at (404) 589-8424 or mnews@mindspring.com.