Josh Hawley on Education

Give religious schools state educational resources

Josh Hawley (R): Has supported eligibility of religious schools for state resources. Position unclear on vouchers.

Claire McCaskill (D): No.

Universities provide worthless degrees and waste billions

Josh Hawley (R): Unclear, but says universities waste billions of public funds and leave families with billions of debt, giving students "worthless degrees" and indoctrinating them in far-left thinking.

Claire McCaskill (D): Yes. Co-sponsored Elizabeth Warren proposal to refinance student loans. Supports increasing Pell Grants.

Excluding religious school choice amounts to discrimination

Opponents of school choice decry the use of public money to fund private schools. There is a wrinkle: the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment and, more specifically for Missourians, the Blaine Amendment to the Missouri Constitution, which stipulates that "no money shall ever be taken from the public treasury, directly or indirectly, in aid of any church, sect or denomination of religion."

In 2002, the Supreme Court ruled that excluding religious institutions from school choice programs and funding amounted to discrimination. The court is currently weighing a challenge to Missouri's Blaine Amendment. Newly inaugurated Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley insists, "Blaine Amendments cannot be allowed to trump the First Amendment."