Date sent: Fri, 21 Feb 1997 19:22:45 -0500
From: judihahn@iac.net
Subject: Public schools

Posted to National and Ohio Loops:

My husband clarified for me WHY government schools shouldn't be called public schools. If they are public schools then there is no reason why there cannot be prayer, Bible reading, other religious (a.k.a. Christian) events -- because there is nothing in the constitution that prohibits PUBLIC exercise of religion. However, since the US Supreme Court has ruled that there is a mythical separation of church and state, and has ruled that Bible reading and prayer are not permitted in schools (unless private or religious -- e.g., open to the PUBLIC at a cost), then schools cannot be called public schools, they must be called government schools, because only in the government is there a separation (albeit erroneous) of church and state. Personally, I haven't called public schools "public" for several years. I've called them government schools since my days on the Ohio Board of Education. It used to irritate the then superintendent of public instruction to have them called government schools. But even the Ohio constitution refers to state schools as government schools.

Another thing, tax dollars go to fund government entities (whether those who get the dollars want to believe that or not), and since "public" (GOVERNMENT) schools get almost all their money from tax dollars, they are government entities -- GOVERNMENT schools.