Yet that happy circumstance is unrecognized by the participants. By erecting a wall of separation between school and state, just as the Founding Fathers did for church and state. The case for separating school and state is essentially the same as that for separating church and state. The wise founders of this nation removed religion from the politicians' reach because they knew that forcible imposition of religious beliefs had bled Europe and caused untold misery for centuries. People obviously do not like to have a world view forced down their throats.
Education also embodies a world view and values.
Government sponsorship of education, then, resembles its sponsorship of religion, and it carries the same risks. It is financed through compulsory levies, and students are compelled to attend. So public schooling necessarily introduces coercion into many sensitive areas of family life and personal conscience. That is why current disputes over values in public schools are so visceral and bitter. School prayer will be voluntary only when school attendance and financing are voluntary.