Paper Says Minnesota's Funding of Drug Program Raises Church-State Issues

Yesterday's Minnesota Independent features an investigative article on state funding of Minnesota Teen Challenge's faith-based drug treatment centers. MnTC has received nearly $2.4 million in state funding since 2007, primarily from the Minnesota Department of Human Services' Consolidated Chemical Dependency Treatment Fund. County agencies, using state guidelines, determine which clients need treatment and then pay state-licensed providers (such as Teen Challenge) for the treatment on a fee-for-service basis. The state Fund reimburses counties for much of their costs. Teen Challenge says that state funds are not used for evangelical programming. However, according to the newspaper's report: "most of the language about the program — coming from its managers, Web site and clients — references the transformational power of Jesus Christ, as opposed to chemical health and behavior therapy." Last year, American United called for termination of federal grants to Minnesota Teen Challenge because of Establishment Clause concerns. (See prior posting.)