June 4, 1975

Need Church Schools As Alternate Choice

The U.S. Supreme Court has decisively struck down the final attempt to support parochial schools with public funds at a time when we need more - not less - religiously oriented education.

I say this not as a religious person - I have been the despair of a dozen good ministers - but as a concerned parent who sees the intrusion of politics into education as a dangerous and debilitating influence.

The private schools of Catholics, Lutherans, Baptists and Jews are important supplements to mass education.

The public schools these days seem to have increasing difficulty in maintaining discipline and establishing moral standards.  Too many students harass their teachers and other pupils.  In big cities, it is not unusual for pupils to carry guns into the school rooms to protect themselves or intimidate others.  The rate of homicides on school properties is shocking.  Petty thievery and unprovoked violence is commonplace.

Parents worry about trashy textbooks, militant teachers, drugs in school hallways and early sex on the playground.  Long hair, skin-tight jeans and bare belly-buttons are accepted dress standards in even conservative communities.

It is not a coincidence, in my opinion, that this deterioration began with the advent of state and federal aid to schools.  It has increased in direct proportion to the amount of politics practiced to swap votes for financial assistance.

Local control of schools is just about gone, even though we may not be fully aware of it.  Ask any school board member how much of the total school budget he has the power to manage.  Federal and state aid constitute about half of a school's funding, and every dollar comes with a string running back to Columbus or Washington.

My Catholic friends are in no mood for a philosophic discussion of the separation of church and state.  Nevertheless, parochial schools have been saved from disaster by the Supreme Court's latest action.

We need an alternative to public education.  Private schools, largely Roman Catholic, are anchors of stability and morality in American education.  They are needed now more than ever before.

Protestants and Jews used to worry that the Catholics would use their school systems to indoctrinate a fiercely religious caste that would take over the country and put the Pope in the White House.

If such a fantasy ever was a serious consideration, there is no longer any basis for it.  Though ministers will dispute me, religion as a controlling social force is less than dominant today.  Protestants, Catholics and Jews alike treat their faiths with less fervor than did their grandparents.  The danger today is not that one faith will gain the upper hand; it is, rather that the political state will regiment our lives to such a degree that religion will disappear.

If you think I exaggerate ponder a moment the fate of churches when socialism - the ultimate politics - is established.  What has happened to religion in Russia, China and North Vietnam?

Ohio has sought to circumvent the U.S. Constitution regarding public aid to church schools by providing "auxiliary services".  Such things, for example, as bussing, lunches, nurses, health testing, and electronic teaching aids.  The state spent $41 million last year for parochial schools and has earmarked another $40 million this year.

All this is expected to grind to a halt this month when a three-judge panel in Ohio reconsiders the Ohio law.  Observers agree the end for parochiad as come.

In this space, exactly a decade ago, I noted the first federal aid to church schools.

"During all the hullabaloo about the possible intrusion of church into state matters," I opined, "nobody seems to consider the much more probable influence of the state on the church.

"The federal government is already deeply involved in subsidizing our text books.  Federal intervention of our churches through the back door of education is an assault on religion.  The influence of a materialistic government is more likely to hasten our disposition to self-centeredness than turn us back to God-centeredness.

"Yet, so important is an alternative education system that I would risk the politics in return for strict guarantees that aid would be confined to cash only NOT teachers, textbooks or instruction guides."

In the intervening 10 years eager government and desperate parochial school administrators strayed ever farther over this boundary until the Supreme Court ruled there was no more "distinction" between auxiliary aid and state-church mingling.

The struggle for survival of parochial education will get harder.  Major changes will have to be made in concepts.  But there is a need for a non-political education system which many protestants are coming to believe vital to the kind of over all society they wish.

A little less emphasis on dogma and a little more emphasis on proven social values would bring a substantial measure of voluntary assistance from citizens indifferent to religion but aware of the dangers of pervasive government and declining moral standards.

Author: Lindsey Williams