The title quote is from a language textbook soon to be used in a bilingual Hebrew-English charter school in Florida. Many other religiously themed passages also appear in the book, though they are to be used for translation rather than devotional purposes. Is this constitutional?

Probably, but it’s hard to say. What can be said for sure is that it already has been and will continue to be a source of controversy in the community. This is yet another reason why charter schools do not go far enough on the path to educational freedom.

So long as all taxpayers are compelled to fund a school, that school must dilute its curriculum to a lowest common denominator: it must contain nothing truly objectionable to any organized interest group, or it will be the subject of contention and quite often litigation. For a full discussion of the social conflicts caused by conventional public schools, please Neal McCluskey’s fascinating paper “Why We Fight.”

Fortunately, there is a simple alternative to charter schools that provides freedom of choice not just to parents but to taxpayers as well: education tax credits. As I’ve previously discussed here and here, non-refundable education tax credits do not constitute public funding and can allow universal access to the educational marketplace without forcing people to subsidize education that they find morally objectionable.

So for anyone who is truly concerned with separation of church and state, and with minimizing social conflict, education tax credits are the answer. To claim that these religious and social concerns are one’s reasons for objecting to school choice while ignoring the tax credit solution is either lazy or disingenuous.