Zelman Vs. Simmons-Harris the First Term Paper

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They should not expect taxpayers to carry religious as well as general education. Quality of education is another concern altogether. Everybody has the right to a high quality of education. But specific education such as religious instruction should not rest on the shoulders of the public.

It is true that everybody has the right to instruct their children according to the religious choices available. Providing public funding for this however entails a fundamental problem relating to tolerance. The American public is made up of a wide variety of groups in terms of religion, race and ethnicity. Funding for education is carried by taxpayers, regardless of creed or religious choice. Allowing such funding to be used for possible discriminatory choices is thus discriminatory in itself, although it is not seen as such by the Court.

The decision of the Court is explained by the exact argument of freedom of choice. The money is provided for education. Any further choices are not the concern of the government providing the funding, as parents are free to choose for their children whatever education they deem necessary for the productive adulthood of the children. Once again, this argument fails in the light of the above discussion. Parents should not expect public funding for private religious schooling, because this is unconstitutional.

The problem is that the government leans towards a religious orientation rather than a socially constitutional one. The tendency is thus to interpret the law from this viewpoint, or indeed to manipulate the law in a way that favors a religious view. This might be seen as the basis for the Supreme Court decision in the above case. The needs taken into account then are not those of the children, but those of the parents receiving the funds, as well as those of the government in its mission to make the United States increasingly prejudiced in terms of religion.

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Neither the needs of the public, nor those of children are considered in a holistic manner.

The Court might have been honestly sincere in its decision. Yet the decision made does not appear to offer solutions to the problem of discrimination, whether it be only perceived as such or actual discrimination in reality. If people lose faith in the ability of their government to uphold their interests, a country's strength is severely undermined. A united front is indeed something that America needs now more than ever.

It is true that education is needed, and that there is a crisis in this field that needs to be solved. But the solution does not lie in instigating further discrimination than is already the case. A simple solution could have been to indeed provide funding for high quality schools, as long as these schools are not focused on a specific religion. Parents are then still free to choose which religion to raise their children in, but such education will not be funded by the public, which is diverse in nature......

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