While government units have provided services through religious nonprofits for decades,[6] Charitable Choice and the President?s initiative encourage direct contracts with religious congregations, rather than with the 501(c)3 affiliates that have traditionally delivered social services with government dollars. Those traditional providers?Catholic Charities, Lutheran Social Services, Jewish Family Services and the like?have generally displayed a sensitivity to the constitutional constraints that accompany public funds.[7] Congregations, however, unlike religious social service agencies, are first and foremost communities of worship.[8] It is fair to ask whether the leaders of such communities are as familiar with those constitutional constraints, and as willing, or able, to operate within them.
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Privatization and Social Capital: Unasked Questions
Interestingly, despite a widespread belief that the voluntary sector is an important generator of social capital, no one to date has studied whether the seemingly inexorable growth of government contracting with nonprofit organizations might be contributing to a decline, slowing that decline, or changing the character of the social capital that is produced.
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The Digital Divide
The American legal system evolves far more slowly than the new technologies that present almost daily challenges to rules framed for a simpler time.
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Charitable Choice: First Results from Three States
Interim findings from a three-year, three-state study of implementation of the Charitable Choice provisions of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA).
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Back To School
[W]hile school districts across the nation have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on safety and safety technologies, there is very little data about the relative effectiveness of these measures. While concern for student safety is certainly warranted, sound public policy should be based upon evidence of the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of these technologies, as well as their congruity with basic constitutional principles.
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