Reader urges taxpayers to speak out against funding for Christian Learning Centers

No to state religion

I recently read about the $1.5 million state donation to Christian Learning Centers of Greenville. I’m reasonably new to South Carolina (2018) and wondering how best to make my displeasure known.

There are so many dangerous legislative and judicial precedents impacting our lives today. We don’t need more.

A court case will hopefully nip this in the bud, but I feel that constituents should also be loud and clear to thwart anyone else attempting the same.

In South Carolina and in the Upstate especially, there are so many Christians that many forget they have non-Christian neighbors, and that this is a major point of church and state separation – we don’t have an “official religion” of the State of South Carolina.

Catherine Moore, Greer

Brief exhale?

South Carolinians can breathe a sigh of relief, temporarily, given the 5-0 order of its Supreme Court to block the state’s Senate bill banning abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, which took effect after Roe v. Wade was overturned.

This temporary injunction is particularly significant in light of the many extreme proposals being considered now by the House.

A recent poll of South Carolinians in S.C. Senate Districts 31, 33 and 41 found nearly two-thirds support the right to abortion and oppose a statewide abortion ban. See: https://www.prochoiceamerica.org/report/south-carolina-support-abortion

No decision is more personal than if or when to have a child. This decision should be left to the family and their physicians.

This legal intrusion violates South Carolinians’ constitutional rights to privacy, due process, and equal protection under the law.

This legislature is on a slippery slope that violates our individual rights and freedom. I’m grateful today that the S.C. Supreme Court has provided a path to preserve our rights.

Toby M. Levin, Sun City

High cost of higher ed

President Biden’s new plan to relieve some debt incurred by students for attending college is stirring debate about its cost and fairness.

As tuition increases outpace inflation, students are having to borrow more to finance their education. But why is tuition rising? Should the blame land on a greedy higher education establishment?

A major factor often ignored in the debate is the decline in state government support for public colleges and universities over the past 30 years (over 30% in South Carolina alone since 2008).

As state support declines, colleges and universities are forced to raise tuition to cover the actual costs of instruction. Nationally students once paying a third of the cost of their education are now shouldering half those costs.

Higher education, once a public good for all, is increasingly viewed as only a private good by our legislators. Is that a wise disinvestment in our state’s future and a rising knowledge economy? Ask your representatives and governor.

David Ericson, Hilton Head Island

Theocracy or democracy?

Nearly 250 years ago, our country was formed, in part, to escape religious persecution. Now we have a Supreme Court composed of six Christian zealots, an S.C. legislature full of religious sycophants hell-bent on forcing anyone who becomes pregnant – rape, incest or otherwise be damned – to carry the baby to birth.

How about the unconstitutional use of public funds for a religious school?That’s OK according to the governor and legislature.

The difference between this and Iran – theirs is a Muslim theocracy, ours is a wannabe Christian theocracy. Both with loonies in charge.

Gary Cadle, St. Helena Island