JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) - The House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday advanced a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow for state funds to support private and religious schools.
Rep. Wes Keller, R-Wasilla, and the sponsor of HJR1, said the purpose of the proposal is to remove the so-called Blaine Amendment from the Alaska Constitution.
Keller contends the section of the constitution forbidding state funds from going to private and religious schools was targeted against Catholics in the late 1800s and every territory seeking admission into the Union was required to have it in their state constitution.
Rep. Max Gruenberg, D-Anchorage, said he opposed removing that section of the constitution because doing so would remove a separation of church and state.
Gruenberg said he would vote no when the measure reached the floor.
Proposed constitutional amendments require two-thirds vote in each the House and Senate before they can qualify for the ballot. A similar proposal is pending on the Senate side, with the sponsor attempting to build sufficient support.
Rep. Gabrielle LeDoux, R-Anchorage, asked Gruenberg how the current language in question within the state constitution reconciles with state scholarships going to private and religious schools.
Gruenberg said such state scholarships are seen as contributions to individual students rather than funds going to private and religious schools.
In earlier public testimony on the measure, many scoffed that the motivation for the bill was to remove an anti-Catholic plank with the state constitution as Keller contends.
“I am Irish and I am Catholic and I am Caucasian and I find it hilarious that at this stage of my life that I discover I have been discriminated against,” said Mark Wiggins of Anchorage.
Wiggins said labeling the separation of the church and state section of the Alaska Constitution by calling it the Blaine Amendment was merely a way for advocates of the bill to hide their true motivations.
The bill now goes to the House Finance Committee.
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