Separation of State from Religion—and Education—are Corollary Principles of the Right

Slate’s Amanda Marcotte argues that a new Florida law attempts “to get around the spirit” of the 1962 Supreme Court decision Engel v. Vitale—a decision that banned government-sponsored prayer in public schools on the grounds that it violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

The Florida law “allows students to lead . . . ‘inspirational messages’ at noncompulsory school events like school trips, games, and graduation.” Marcotte points out that this is a back-door attempt to let people “bully” their religion on others with the “implied endorsement of the school.” Indeed, it is.

It is time for Americans to recognize that, as C. Bradley Thompson explains in his eloquent talk on the subject, the same logic and the same principles that demand separation of church and state also demand both free market education and the complete separation of school and state.

Separation of state from religion—and education—are corollary principles of the right.

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Related:

• Political “Left” and “Right” Properly Defined
• Toward a Free Market in Education: School Vouchers or Tax Credits?
• The Educational Bonanza in Privatizing Government Schools
• Santorum “Throws Up” on Separation of Church and State
• The Godless Constitution: A Moral Defense of the Secular State by Isaac Kramnick and R. Laurence Moore (review)

Image: iStockPhoto

About Michael A. LaFerrara

Michael A. LaFerrara resides in New Jersey, where he spent his career in the plumbing, building controls, and construction industries. He writes on a wide variety of topics from an Objectivist perspective at his blog, Principled Perspectives.

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