Published: Friday, January 30, 2015 at 05:25 PM.
On Feb. 17, the North Carolina Supreme curt is slated to hear two cases challenging the Opportunity Scholarship Program, which provides low-income families the option to receive vouchers of up to $4,200 for their child to attend a non-public school of the parents choosing. Staunch supporters of the United States Constitutions First Amendment and secularists have cried foul, as the program opens old wounds of Zelman v. Simmons-Harris by enabling public tax dollars to fund not only religious schools but schools that can discriminate against applicants based on religion and schools that cant be held to education performance standards.
I am one such secular, non-religious United States citizen and North Carolina resident who believes public tax dollars shouldnt fund education that simultaneously indoctrinates its students in religion (e.g. Greensboro Islam Academy or Victory Christian Center School).
However, despite my belief in the Constitutions First Amendment and my disagreement with Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, I want the Opportunity Scholarship Program to be ruled constitutional in the state supreme courts upcoming hearing and so should secularists everywhere.
I want taxpayer backed school vouchers to continue to enable attendance at private schools, because on average, the private schools these students attend will provide a better education than North Carolinas failing public school system. And that better education and the critical thinking it facilitates, coupled with the wealth of knowledge available on the internet, will allow these students, as they come into adulthood, to see past the very indoctrination religious schools hope to achieve.
Religion is giving way to reason in this country as youth have more and more access to knowledge and opinion outside of their towns and schools through the internet. All the secular, non-religious community has to do is enable critical thinking skills through education, and the internet will take care of the rest. The Opportunity Scholarship Program is one such enabling tool. Lets allow that affront to our First Amendment values teach children to reason and focus our efforts on improving the critical thinking skills of the children left in the public school system.
Matthew Lindauer, New Bern
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