We must live with each other. While we have to accept the fact that most people feel comfortable in the company of those of a similar culture, we also must seek every opportunity to encourage cultures to know and appreciate one another. Our public school system is one of our most important such opportunities. Friendships across racial lines, I found, were common. Fights within ethnic groups occurred much more often than fights between them.
Familiarity does breed tolerance.
If a voucher program were utilized by only a few families, and only in failing districts, it would not present much of a risk to the cultural unity of the United States. As each religious or ethnic group observed other groups creating such schools and withdrawing children from the public schools, pressure on the holdout groups to follow suit would intensify. Group pressure on families to support the group's school by enrolling their children would be compelling. If a voucher program were utilized by only a few families, and only in failing districts, it would not present much of a risk to the cultural unity of the United States. Outside of the districts with high rates of educational failure, we now have the church-state balance in schooling about right.