Separation of Church and State or Public Schools: Pick One
23rd October 2010
David Friedman is always worth reading.
This suggests a more general point—is the existence of a public school system consistent with a serious commitment to the separation of church and state?
I think the answer is that it is not. While teaching a fundamentalist version of the origin of life is indeed taking a side in a religious dispute, teaching a conventional account of biology and geology is is also taking a side in that dispute, just the opposite side. I do not see how I can honestly tell a fundamentalist that it is a violation of the separation of church and state to teach children that his religious beliefs are true but not a violation to teach children that they are false.