WASHINGTON – A federal appeals court yesterday endorsed the use of federal AmeriCorps money to place young teachers in religious schools, reversing a lower court judge who said the program crossed the constitutional line separating church and state.

The government is not promoting religion and AmeriCorps creates no incentives for participants to teach religion, Appeals Court Judge A. Raymond Randolph wrote in a 3-0 decision.

The AmeriCorps program trains participants, offers them $4,725 in financial aid, and has them teach some of the nation’s neediest children, in both secular and religious schools. There, the participants fulfill a service requirement of 1,700 hours by teaching secular subjects, though they may also teach religious courses.

In the religious schools, the participants “may count only the time they spend engaged in nonreligious activities toward their service hours requirement,” the appeals court said. “And if they do teach religious subjects, they are prohibited from wearing the AmeriCorps logo when they are doing so.”

As of 2001, the latest year for which figures are available, religious schools accounted for 328 of the 1,608 schools employing AmeriCorps participants as teachers.

AmeriCorps participants have been teaching secular subjects for 10 years, both in public and religious schools, said David Eisner, CEO of AmeriCorps’ parent agency.

The American Jewish Congress, which brought the case, argued that federal money was being used improperly to pay for teaching Christian values.

The general counsel for the AJC, Marc Stern, said the AmeriCorps case falls somewhere between a law favoring religion and the Supreme Court-approved voucher program, in which all schools were eligible and children were chosen on a first-come, first-serve basis.

“The unanswered question here about the AmeriCorps program is: How did the government choose from lots of people who wanted the money, some of whom were religious?” Mr. Stern said after the appeals court ruling. The AJC is considering whether to seek Supreme Court review.

The AJC also objected to AmeriCorps paying $400 a participant to the sponsors of the program for administrative costs. The sponsors include the University of Notre Dame, which was sued along with AmeriCorps’ parent agency.

The appeals court said $400 is much less than the actual administrative costs. In the case of Notre Dame, it paid only 8% of the salaries of those who trained the AmeriCorps participants.

In a ruling last July, U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler said the line between the secular and nonsecular activities had become “completely blurred.”

Ms. Kessler said the government did not monitor the programs adequately on the question of separation. The appeals court disagreed, saying the AJC failed to make a case for ineffective monitoring.

[The director of public policy for the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, Nathan Diament, said the union was pleased with the appeals court ruling.

“The court has repudiated arguments which virtually demand government discrimination against religion rather than the appropriate government neutrality toward religion,” Mr. Diament said in a statement yesterday.

“This is another hopeful sign that the constitutional law with regard to the relationship of religion and state is on the right track – toward moderation and toleration, rather than the discrimination which some continue to seek.”]