I went to a small religious school and from what I know such a school would be acceptable to the voucher program. Charter schools are basically private schools paid by public money so the basic arrangement itself is not being challenged. I do not see the establishment clause being violated as religion affiliation would not be the criteria under which the government selects what schools are funded and which ones are not though parents may use that criteria. I do question the free exercise of religion as legislatures generally attach strings to funds they hand out and those strings may conflict with religious doctrine. I also object to the voucher program because it does not include home schooling.

I said in theory above, because in the Los Angeles school system a vouchered child gets much less than what is given to the LAUSD for the same child- by at least a factor of two.

So, both secular and religious private schools are already making do with less money than public schools.

There are plenty of secular private and public schools.

Currently, yes. If, however, the vouchers are a huge success among the largest religions in this country, the amount of funds available to secular schools or those based on minority religions may not be sufficient to provide a reasonable education.

If that happened (i’m not certain it would, but it’s definitely a possibility), the only realistic way for a low-income child to get a good education would be to attend schools that espouse certain popular religions. This would certainly violate the establishment clause.

I’m not saying that there isn’t a way to make it work (and I’m also not defending the status quo), but it’s not as simple as saying “let everyone have vouchers.”

Give kids vouchers. Maybe even privatize ‘public’ schools- and watch them go away when no one chooses to go to them.

But, I’m not convinced that vouchers are the right answer. On a small scale, they work perfectly, but if they ever reach a critical mass, it could easily have detrimental effects on the children of minority religions as well as those that simply want a secular education.

Any and all voucher programs are a threat to their indoctrination of YOUR children and they cannot permit it.

If the state of affairs is ever such that the only way to get a good education is to go to the schools of a certain religion (some would contend this is already the case), I would consider that to be an ever more egregious form of indoctrination.

I’d be happy to hear any suggestions that are out there.