Some Americans Favor Moving Away from Public Schooling if Private Scholarships Available for the Poor

One out of four Americans (twenty-seven percent) would support repealing compulsory school attendance and ending tax support for schooling. The number favoring these measures jumped to over half (fifty-seven percent) when those opposed to the idea were asked to reconsider, if they "were assured that there would be enough private scholarships available so that all poor and disadvantaged students has the chance to go to better schools than today."

Marshall Fritz, Director of the Separation of School & State Alliance (in Fresno, California), noted that those with the greatest need to improve their children's education were the most responsive to the Separation idea if sufficient private scholarships are available. Black support jumped from twenty-six percent to sixty-one percent, low-income support from twenty-six percent to sixty-two percent, and ages eighteen to thirty-four from twenty-eight percent to sixty-three percent.

Reverend E. Ray Moore, founder of Exodus 2000, says, "When I propose that Christian children should be removed from 'public schools' and that we should separate schools from the state, the first question is almost always about the poor. This survey shows that 'Separation' will be feasible when we can show convincing evidence that private scholarships will take care of the disadvantaged. This indicates a need for churches to bring financial support to Christian education."

The Separation of School & State Alliance was founded in 1994 as a grassroots nonprofit education organization with the mission of informing Americans how education can be improved, especially for the poor, by ending government involvement in K-12 education. For more information, call the Separation of School & State Alliance at (209) 292-1776 or visit their Web site at www.SepSchool.org.