April 9, 2001. Even leaving aside the dubious constitutionality of government financial support for religious services, deregulation is a recipe for disaster.
Recent experience shows why.
None, however, were properly regulated. In 1997, after Texas regulators had tried to shut down a Christian rehabilitation program called Teen Challenge because its staff failed to meet educational requirements, then-Governor Bush responded by scuttling all the state's training and safety regulations for such facilities. Now that he's ensconced in the White House, Bush intends to deregulate Teen Challenge-type programs nationwide. Our new president's enthusiasm for deregulation of faith-based services is not hard to figure. As a onetime heavy drinker who says Jesus saved him as well as a Republican with classic antipathy toward government, Bush sees in faith-based services the opportunity both to trumpet his faith and to shrink the size of government.