The state isn’t required to “fund private education at all, but if they choose to provide scholarships that are available to students who attend private schools, they can’t discriminate against parents who want to send their children to schools that are affiliated in some way with a church,” said Alito. - National Review
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NewSamuel Alito is not as well
Samuel Alito is not as well known as Thomas, Scalia, or Roberts, and people usually do not appreciate his abilities. He makes good points on the specific issue he talks about.
However Christians need to face the realities of accepting direct or indirect government assistance for childrens’ education. Indiana has a voucher program that many have participated in. Yet now the state is considering adding requirements which Christians will find unacceptable. Thus the dilemma: Accept government assistance, keep your children in the Christian school and keep the school open or refuse to accept the new requirements and wonder where your children will go to school, probably leading to many schools closing or shrinking dramatically. I do not want to minimize the financial problems many Christian families face, but those problems are exactly why government assistance is so appealing . . and deceptive.
We should engage the fight for First Amendment (and Fourteenth Amendment) rights but refuse government financial assistance, either directly or indirectly. Government financial assistance always comes with strings attached, or perhaps they are chains. More Christian colleges should be like Hillsdale College in their financial structure. But when the bottom line concerns keeping the doors open, many Christian schools and colleges will take the government money, sacrificing the permanent on the altar of the immediate.
Wally Morris
Huntington, IN