[quote=jstoesz]
So the state takes my tax money, and I have either the choice of a state mandated secular humanist education or I can forfeit it and pay after tax dollar on a private school…Sounds a bit like state coercion towards the secular humanist school. And the notion that our schools must be absent any mention of God as a real and important part of our lives is indeed a federal mandate…
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You can choose to view it as coercion, or state provided choices. The state (little “s”) also provides you with police and fire protection, national defense, regulatory bodies for banks and investment houses, to help protect and ensure the foods and products you buy are safe, park and recreation facilities, roads and public transportation and much more. Some of these you will use directly, some indirectly, some not at all. Some you may support, some you may vehemently disagree with. But you don’t get to choose whether you pay for them, you only get to choose, through the election process, whether those services will be funded. If enough people feel the same way as you, maybe some of these services will be defunded. Public schools are one of the services that have been provided for many generations. And for more than 60 years, the constitution has been interpreted to prohibit the funding of religious instruction in public schools. There is nothing prohibiting you from providing that instruction outside the public school system. Just as there is nothing prohibiting you from providing outside isntruction for many subjects which have also (though for different reasons) been defunded in many school districts. Like music, art, drama, and physical education. No coercion involved. Nobody is coercing you, or your children to be godless athiests. That’s the point of the separation. There is no government coercion.
I don’t really know much about secular humanism. I’m reasonably sure it is not a subject taught in public schools. Certainly not in my kid’s schools. Unless you classify science as secular humanism, that argument fails.
