Religion and Education: A Continuing Dilemma

Abstract

No questions have provoked as much discussion or prompted as much litigation during the past three decades in church-state relations as the role of religion in the public schools and the use of public funds for religious schools. The issues raised by these two questions constitute a continuing dilemma in religion and education in America. This essay reviews religion and education in the context of U.S. church- state relations and several decades of judicial interpretations based on the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. The most serious proposal for securing public funds for reli gious schools now being advanced is tuition tax-credit legisla tion, the outcome of which is by no means certain. Even here, however, the eligibility for such funds may require that church schools maintain an essentially secular character and thereby lose their religious identity and church-relatedness.