THE CHURCH-STATE-SCHOOL DEBATE

Many an editorialist and polemicist was willing to leave the big questions to the Supreme Court last week as the U.S. debated the touchy issue of federal aid to private and religious schools. But here and there thoughtful opinion shaped up:

CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER:

Our position has been consistently this: we oppose widespread federal aid for parochial schools. We oppose widespread federal aid for public schools.

ST. Louis POST-DISPATCH : Taxing all the people to support the religion of some of the people would be both unconstitutional and undesirable.

DENVER POST:

If this nation ever reaches the stage when the children of each of the 256 separate denominations attend 256 separate school systems financed by the Government, the danger to our national unity will be very great indeed.

THE REV. FRANCIS P. CANAVAN, S.J., writing in the Jesuit weekly, AMERICA :

The demand now made by Catholic (and other) parents for some relief from the burden of supporting both their own and the public schools is a request for the rethinking of a policy, not for a revision of the Constitution.

PORTLAND (Me.) PRESS-HERALD: We stoutly defend the right of any church to teach its doctrine. But we cannot underwrite that doctrine.

THE NEW REPUBLIC :

(The state) is committed to exerting a secular, unifying, equalitarian force. To accept the principle of general support of public and private schools equally out of public funds is to abandon the mission of the state.

DR. PHILIP A. JOHNSON, National Lutheran Council:

The extension of public grants or credits to private or parochial schools would raise grave questions of constitutionality, since it would clearly be a form of tax support of sectarian instruction. It would also constitute an invitation to sectarian groups to expand their schools beyond their ability to support them.

Protestant Theologian REINHOLD NIEBUHR in the NEW LEADER :

A religiously pluralistic and semi-secular society cannot afford to imperil the unity of a people through a pluralistic school system, the heterogeneity of which would be aggravated by tax support of religious schools. We cannot afford this divisiveness in our education and in our national life.

NEW YORK MIRROR:

Clearly, if a distinction is made between one child and another, on religious grounds, it is a violation of the Constitution.

THE REV. DANIEL J. FLAHERTY in the DENVER CATHOLIC REGISTER :

New legislation is urgently needed which will recognize the fact that the American school system does not begin and end with the public school. The private schools function as an integral part of the general educational system of the country and are entitled to those benefits designed to promote the general welfare.

THE COMMONWEAL (Roman Catholic) :

President Kennedy has suggested that special legislation [on loans] be introduced and debated on its own merits. Such an alternative would represent a substantial concession on the part of Catholics. Nevertheless, we think this is a concession Catholics may be called upon to make. If it is necessary for the passage of the bill, it should, with whatever difficulty, be made. Then, not only Catholics, but all who profess real interest in education and the general welfare should turn serious attention to the legitimate claims of Catholics. For the education of the large minority of children in parochial schools must be seen for what it is ... a national concern.

Detroit's weekly JEWISH NEWS : American Jewry, in backing the President's stand on the school issue, adheres to a policy of staunchly defending the public school system.

DR. W. A. CRISWELL of Dallas, pastor of the First Baptist Church, world's largest:

The gift of America to civilization is the doctrine of the separation of Church and State. If the wall is breached separating Church and State, it will be done through the use of public tax moneys to support clerical institutions. Our part ought to be to stand behind President Kennedy and the Constitution.

The Protestant CHRISTIAN CENTURY : The Roman Catholic hierarchy has drawn the line on which the battle for federal aid to education will be fought and has dared the Congress to step over it. The challenge should be accepted. If they have their way, federal funds will be used for religious purposes, despite the Constitution, or there will be no federal funds for public education.

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