It takes a special kind of arrogance to fly in the face of history and the wisdom of our founding fathers. Those who are pushing school voucher or tuition tax credit legislation in order to fund private and religious schools ignore the fact that our nation has enjoyed religious liberty precisely because we have kept government and taxpayer dollars away from religion. School voucher systems are touted as allowing a parent to choose a private or religious school instead of a public school for their child. The taxpayer money that the state normally gives the public school for each enrolled student would then go to the private school the parent selects.
Experience has shown, however, it's the religious and private schools who select student applicants.
The parents don't have the choice. Tuition tax credit systems give parents who send their child to a religious or private school a tax write-off on their state taxes. In other words, it exempts parents who send their children to private schools from the amount of tax they would normally have to pay. It's a back-door approach to funding religious schools with tax dollars. Thomas Jefferson and James Madison understood the problems with taxing to fund church institutions.