AmeriCorps can place volunteers in Catholic schools, court rules

Published: 2005-03-09

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A federal appeals court ruled March 8 that the national service program AmeriCorps can subsidize its volunteers placed in Catholic schools without violating the constitutional separation of church and state, overturning a ruling last year by a lower court. In a 3-0 decision, Judge A. Raymond Randolph of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit wrote that the U.S. government is neither promoting religion nor creating incentives for AmeriCorps volunteers to teach religion in some of the nation's neediest Catholic schools. AmeriCorps, a federal agency run by the Corporation for National and Community Service, involves 50,000 people each year in service programs with nonprofit secular and faith-based groups in education, the environment and public safety as well as homeland security, an area recently added by President George W. Bush. Participants in service programs in education earn college tuition vouchers of $4,725 through the AmeriCorps education awards program in exchange for 1,700 hours of service.

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