by Sandy » Tue May 22, 2018 2:20 pm
The problem with the argument is that the opinion about whether it is right or wrong depends on who is getting the money. Give "public money" to a Christian day school, elementary, middle and high school, and it's a problem. Give it to a school like Wake Forest, Notre Dame, Gonzaga, Baylor, SMU, or Furman, and you get arguments against it from a different set of opponents. I have trouble understanding the difference. The amount of "public money" that goes to fund private, religious-based education through various title programs is significantly large. The Pell Grant program, which is exactly the kind of distribution that almost all existing and proposed school voucher programs are modeled after, provides up to 60% of the tuition and fees collected at schools like these. There are two Christian based, church-owned colleges within 20 miles of where I live that claim up to 80% of their tuition money comes through the Pell Grant program.
Private, religious-based schools have been able to provide special services under several Title 1 programs in the past couple of decades. No one really seems to object to it when the recipients are Episcopal schools, Catholic schools or Lutheran schools. My school, which is private, and denominationally affiliated, does not utilize Title 1 funding, but accepts Title 2, 2a, and various state acts which provide for families of students to contract with our resource education program, which has earned a reputation for effectiveness and quality, and pays their tuition and fees to attend here to access those services. And since riding a school bus was deemed to be a religiously neutral activity several years ago, the state can pay for bus transportation for students regardless of where they attend school.
If there's going to be a sharp divide on this, then families who opt out of the tax supported, public education system should not have to pay taxes to support a system they don't use, and which they see as a waste of money and time. Church-based, religious-based educational systems are a major provider of educational services, and major contributors, beyond their size and scope, to a higher academic achievement than would exist otherwise.