In theory, I’m not too worked up about the recent Supreme Court decision upholding school vouchers. In theory, families can use vouchers to send their children to any kind of school, and I am not against religion, just against religious discrimation. In this sense, Eugene Volokh’s assessment is perfectly reasonable.

But the reality is very different. Close to 90% of private schools are religious. Most families put their children in these schools for both the religious education and the general educational benefits inherent in smaller class sizes and dedicated teachers. There is no strong incentive for secular private schools because the public schools fulfill this purpose for practically all secular and non-denominationa families.

So, the real effect of this ruling is to take money from the schools that educate most of our children and funnel it directly into religious institutions. And I would bet that many of these institutions survive on the economic effects of the tax-exempt and otherwise tax-incentivized activities of the religious organizations that sponsor/operate/cooperate or otherwise are involved with them!

This is precisely why, even with this added incentive to found more non-religious private schools, it isnot going to happen. My only consolation is that these vouchers can–and I hope will–be used to subsidize children going to Muslim, Wiccan, Satanic, and other schools that will drive the sponsors crazy.

P.S. Of all the overblown political rhetoric, bringing up the idea of a constitutional amendment to enshrine religious rhetoric in the Pledge of Allegiance has to be one of the worst examples. Even considering an amendment regarding such trivialities cheapens the Constitution and everything it stands for.