Last month, the United States House of Representatives voted that you could be hired or fired solely because of your religion if you work with a Head Start program. This bill, which heads to the Senate, would not only legalize a form of religious discrimination, but jeopardizes a historic program that serves almost 1 million children nationwide and almost 40,000 in Illinois.

In 2004, Head Start programs employed more than 200,000 people and had 1.3 million volunteers in 48,000 classrooms nationwide. Their mission could not be more noble or less controversial -- to increase the school readiness of young children in low-income families. This program has always received widespread bipartisan support and has been held up time and time again as a classic example of a successful government program.

Under current federal law, as a condition of accepting federal funds, all Head Start programs, including those housed in churches and other religious institutions, are prohibited from discriminating on the basis of religion both in hiring and service delivery. Earlier this year, the House Education and Workforce Committee approved the Head Start reauthorization by a unanimous bipartisan vote of 48-0 -- retaining the existing civil rights and anti-discrimination provisions.

Yet these days, no piece of legislation is safe from those determined to impose their own set of religious and moral beliefs on the rest of the nation in the name of religious freedom. The week after the unanimous vote, Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) stated the prohibition against using religion as a basis for hiring creates an atmosphere in which faith-based organizations were being "pressured to surrender their religious identities." In introducing the religious discrimination amendment, Boehner described the current Head Start law as a "slap in the face to religious organizations across America."

A week before the House vote, Rep. Charles Boustany (R-La.) employed the unseemly and misleading tactic of invoking Hurricane Katrina and arguing that a vote against the amendment was an insult to the faith-based groups that had immediately provided assistance to the ravaged Gulf Coast communities.

No one would deny the invaluable role that faith-based institutions have played in addressing many of our nation's most-pressing social needs. Government-funded partnerships with religiously affiliated organizations such as Catholic Charities, Jewish Community Federations and Lutheran Social Services, for example, have helped combat poverty and provide housing, education and health care services for those in need. However, these programs do not use religious criteria in the hiring and firing of staff, the way private religious organizations are generally allowed to under the law.

If the Senate also approves the amendment, teachers and staff working at Head Start programs housed in religious organizations could immediately be given pink slips because of their religion. Programs housed in religious facilities would have the right to post wanted ads and issue job applications saying Christians, Jews or Muslims "need not apply." Tens of thousands of already at-risk children could lose their teachers, with whom they have formed emotional bonds. In addition, Head Start could lose thousands of parent volunteers essential to the success of the program merely because those parents do not share the religious beliefs of the host religious organization.

Ironically, proponents of this change have highlighted the fact that the existing reauthorization bill will improve teacher quality by ensuring that a greater number of Head Start teachers have degrees and are adequately trained in early-childhood development. Yet unless the Senate rejects the discrimination amendment, religious affiliation and belief may trump merit as a hiring criteria.

Anti-discrimination laws have helped to protect religious freedom in this great and diverse nation, and religious communities have made extraordinary contributions to the Head Start program while abiding by its prohibition against discrimination. Government-sanctioned discrimination in federally funded programs like Head Start will only undermine the equality and religious freedom of all Americans and turn back the clock on our nation's hard-won civil rights advances

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