Education: Parochial Puzzle

Roman Catholics have the fastest-growing educational system in the country. Catholic grade and high schools have nearly quadrupled in 50 years to 4,700,100 students—one out of every eight U.S. school children. But parochial schools get no direct tax support: the First Amendment, as interpreted by the U.S. Supreme Court, forbids direct aid to church schools. Meanwhile. Catholic parents (as well as Protestant and Jewish parents who send their children to church schools) are taxed for public schools while their own growing schools need money. What should the U.S. do?

Last week four experts grappled with the question in a new Fund for...

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