In a direct confrontation between church and state, the New York Department of Education has enacted a ban upon local church congregations utilizing space in the state’s public schools for services, says Tammy Lee Morris for Yahoo! News. The fight between churches and the DOE has gone on for several years and went into effect on Feb. 12, meaning that next weekend, churches that have rented space in public schools in NYC will be homeless. The Blaze reported on the ban taking effect and the outcry from local pastors and churchgoers who have maintained that the eviction will leave thousands of people in the city without a place to worship. On the flip side, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and a spokeswoman from the Department of Education have stated that allowing the churches to rent public school space is a conflict between church and state and is a use of taxpayer dollars to “subsidize religion.”