Proposal Looming To Permit Religious Hiring Criteria In Head Start Programs

In a release yesterday, the Anti Defamation League says that when the bill reauthorizing the Head Start Program comes before the House of Representatives in the near future, an amendment is likely to be offered which, for the first time, would permit Head Start programs run by religious organizations to engage in religious discrimination in hiring and firing of teachers and staff. The House Education and the Workforce Committee on May 18 approved the Head Start reauthorization legislation (H.R. 2123, the School Readiness Act) by a bipartisan, unanimous vote, with the existing anti-discrimination provisions in it. However Committee Chairman John Boehner, with the support of the administration, has announced that he intends to offer an amendment on the House floor to repeal the anti-discrimination provisions so that religious criteria could be used for staffing.