I am probably one of the few observers who is highly supportive of government money supporting school vouchers for parochial school while opposing “under God” in the pledge of allegiance. The common thread for both is my belief in the establishment clause of the Constitution, keeping government and religion separate.
It’s government’s responsibility is to ensure that all children are educated to a high standard, and that means providing funding when parents cannot do so. That also means no madrassas in the US teaching only the Koran (or the Bible or the Torah) and no science or math. But, in what other aspect of American life do we believe that the only way a product of sufficient quality can be delivered is by the government doing so itself? Healthcare, food, and automobiles are all essential to modern life, and so we expect the government to regulate aspects of their production. But we certainly do not think they need to be provided by the government. Public schools remain the last bastion of socialism in the US, and the results are comparable to socialist production failures throughout the last century.
So, why religious schools? Because parents deserve the right to send their children for the education they think is best. As long as the religious schools meet a high educational standard (and the vast majority exceed the education at public schools), they should be eligible for vouchers. Of course, if the religious schools become madrassa-like and don’t meet educational standards, then children should not be allowed to attend at all. As for those who worry about religious indoctrination, the best solution is to drastically increase the value of the vouchers so that parents have a real choice of non-religious private schools, which tend to cost much more. I believe that the vast majority of parents are choosing religious (generally Catholic) schools because they want a better education for their children, not because they want kids taught about transubstantiation and immaculate conception. Until we as a society move past the wishful thinking (and union pandering) associated with public school support and realize that education is important enough to drastically increase the funding for it, we should expect the same old pathetic results.
The WSJ has a nice critique of some of the biased reporting on the issue.
Post a Comment