You make a good case for why education should not be a Government action. Government should divest itself from control of schools. Schools should be independent to teach however they want. By having schools controlled by the government, the government is violating freedom of religion . Children are easily influenced and cannot be considered free to choose, therefore, whatever controls the schools is imposing its doctrine, philosophy, or "religion," and that is prohibited by the constitution from being done by the federal government. The government may not restrict the right of schools to freely exercise any religion of their choice. Therefore, the government cannot constitutionally be in control of schools.

Not so. Education has been the responsibility of the states since the Articles of Confederation. Every nation in the world agrees.When my grandfather first came to this great land from Russia in 1910, the thing that impressed him most was the fact that his children could go to the same school as the children of the rich. If what you suggest came about, only the wealthy would receive an education, and this great country would quickly become an oligarchy in which the rich would have absolute control of the state. There would be no educated work force and we would become another third world country.
The US Constitution strictly forbids the state from encouraging or discouraging religion or favoring one religion over another. If you want to send your child to a religious or nonsecular private school, you are certainly free to do so. You are even free to home school your child should that be your decision. Lets do all we can to improve our public schools not do away with them. Before I finish my post I will say this. I try to be polite and respect others ideas no matter how much I disagree with them, but your statement makes me wonder. You seem like an educated person. How could you believe that our country would be better without a public school system with minimum standards.

Minimum standards for schools is a valid function of government. Being in control of schools is not a function of government.

Your assertion that the state would become an oligarchy in which the rich would have absolute control of the state assumes an inherent evilness of people. That may have been true in Russia, but what makes America different is that the people are inherently moral, decent, caring, sharing, and fair. Given that, they would not want to create separate and superior schools for the rich, they would want to create the same quality education for all. If you want that, why do you assume the rest of us are evil and would deny you that?

You are assuming, that those that are not following God knowingly chose not to. People have been deluded to follow many different make believe gods created out of their own imagination because they did not see the true God. These people believed that they were worshipping the true God. They were led astray by Lucifer. thinking inanimate and self created objects were their god.

In their ignorance and their blocked exposure to the true god, they invented god. Just as most do today. Their problem is that they chose the wrong god. One of their imagination. God knows that, and although they know OF God, they did not know God. Only those given special knowledge started to know God. Those that have been mislead, will have the same chance that those who were on the earth when Jesus came to explain the truth. You are purposely defending an untenable position. Putting in God's words things He has not said, but using your interpretation of them to suit your fancy.

You are not reading the bible with the eyes of love, but with the eyes of hate. Turn your thinking around , repent, and look at it from a sensible viewpoint. As an example, when a child runs out into the street in front of a car, He knows full well that a car is dangerous because his parents have told him so, but he is ignorant of the result of his careless actions. His parents have to impress on him the imminent danger in those actions, without letting him get injured. It is difficult to do. Unless he becomes more knowledgeable of the results, he will find it hard to believe that just running in the street could be fatal. It takes more exposure to events sometimes to believe something he has not experienced. So too are those that know of God, but have never found Him. They are not ignorant of God, just not experienced.

This is not an excuse, it is just lack of information that is necessary. Many atheists refuse to acknowledge God because they have never experienced God in their life. They do not want to, they want to ignore God. But as soon as they feel the loving power of God, they change their tune. Criminals often change their direction when they experience God in their circumstances. You cannot deny that God will search for those that are afflicted with lack of knowledge. Knowing something exists is not knowing about it.

Tollerance for others beliefs is certainly not an important point in Christian doctrine. I never understood why Christians believe that only those that believe in the divinity in Jesus can be saved from hell. I picture a nazi concentration camp in wich Jews have just underwent torture and death from an ss guard. The Jews were for the most part good people, and the SS guard was a sadistic murderer. On his death bed the SSman converts to the Christian fait. According to Christian doctrine, the SS man would go to heaven, while the Jews that he tortured and murdered would go to hell because they did not believe in the divinity of Jesus. Makes no sense to me.

What you need to do is find out what makes sense to God. Unless you are God, you don't have any control over who goes to heaven and who doesn't. God makes those calls, and the only thing that matters is what makes sense to Him. And He explains all about it in the Bible if you care to find out.

Jesus said, "you will know them by their fruits." So if the guard's fruit was that he tortured and murdered Jews, that can be understood as bad fruit and therefore he is a bad tree. What did Jesus say happens to bad trees?

Matthew 7
18 A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 So then, you will know them by their fruits.

You disagree that children should be exposed to God? Yet you agree that they be exposed to Atheism? How does that make sense. Evolution is the devils way of taking our mind off of God. You seem to think it is all right? How about the moon is made of cheese. Is that all right? I do believe that teaching about different religions is worthy of our school system. It is not trying to convert or distress anyone to know the systems for which many societies have grown and believed. How much do you know about Babylon? How much do you know about the Egyptian system. How much do you know about Islam, and Buddhism, and any other system, If you do not get some knowledge of it. how can you teach it or even fight it.

We are not to be free of Religion, just to be free from having it forced upon us, it is a personal choice. When you know what you are choosing, you feel secure in it.

And besides, the nature of this country was conceived by certain religious beliefs. those beliefs should be honored as part of our history. You cannot know this nation unless you know it's foundation.

Schools should not be paid for and controlled by the federal government. Whoever pays for and controls has power to impose its version of religion, morality, and politics.

The federal government cannot give itself that power under our constitution. That power is reserved to the people.

Schools should be established by citizens who have a vested interest in teaching a particular curriculum, and people should choose what school they want to go to based on the curriculum they prefer. Our college system is very similar to this, and it works fine. Interference by the federal government through funding and demanding control over the curriculum is the thing that is tearing down education standards in America.

Schools should be paid for by individual fees and contributions, not by tax money collected and provided through government.

I believe that evolution is the way God created the many different species of animals and plants. I certainly expose my children to God every time I go to my place of worship, and even though they are exposed to atheism it doesn't mean a thing because of their religious education and upbringing. God gave us a brain. Evolution is truth according to every scientific reasoning. I can't exclude science. Although evolution is described as a theory, it is treated as truth because it can never be proven. To do so, would take millions of years in a lab. I took biology in college as a lab science. I also took religion since I went to a Christian college. I believe that religion and evolution are not mutually exclusive.

From my years as a teacher, imposing values on students was a big no- no. Schools are not paid for by the federal government but by the state and county governments. It is true that the federal government offers economic help with conditions, but the states are free to refuse this help, and in my state it often does. The " No Child Left Behind" law passed during the last Bush administration was well intentioned, but a disaster. As a result, no teacher wants children with learning problems in their class for fear that they will not meet their goals. I retired when the principal told us at a staff meeting not to concentrate helping the students with the poorest reading skills but instead to work mostly with those students that failed reading tests by just a few points. This would look better and help the school better meet its goal in reading. On the other hand, somebody has to hold schools to a standard.
When I was teaching, students often asked me whom I was voting for. I tried never to answer this question. When I was pressed for an answer, I told them the truth, but told them they are free to vote for whom ever they wanted to. I also taught that no person or group of people hold the absolute truth and that they should investigate for themselves and vote according to their own values and opinion.

You should study the history of education in America.

Historically, the Bible was taught extensively in schools, as well as used as reading material, and used to teach literature, and ethics and morality.

It wasn't unconstitutional for schools to do that then, and it is not unconstitutional to do that today.

What is unconstitutional is for the government to force students to reject religion and to perceive religion as a criminal act. That is prohibiting the free exercise of religion. That is unconstitutional.

I know! I went to school in the early 50s and remember the teacher reciting The Lords Prayer to the class. I also remember at auditorium a Bible verse was read. All this religion never prevented a drug epidemic in our neighborhood. It did manage to anger religious minorities that objected to these practices.Since they are tax paying citizens, their protests were well founded. How would like your child to recite an Allah Akbar or listen to a verse from the Koran every day? Atheists have rights as well. Lets remember that many of the laws of our past have been found to be unconstitutional including laws permitting slavery. Religion is a very private matter and should be left to families to decide!