Sorry, I don’t follow the rest of your logic at all vis-a-vis my comments regarding tax-exempt status.

Also, I repeat that those who are concerned about the content of their children’s education can send their children to a private school.  Seems reasonable to me.

BTW, using “the majority to impose your values” is exactly what the neo-cons are doing in Congress right now.  There are stratgies to combat this, but the central strategy is not a quick fix.

Here we agree.

WeeDram:
End of problem, end of story.

That leaves out a few steps:

1) Get a majority to agree with you;

2) Amend the constitution; Well, this step may be optional if you can get enough judges to agree that “Congress shall make no law” means “Congress shall make no unreasonable laws.”

3) Use the majority to impose your values.

4) Years later, watch in horror as people you disagree with sieze control of the governmental machine you’ve built.

And with that, I think I’ll go enjoy a wee dram myself.

If someone believes their religious beliefs are being violated by the public school curriculum, then they should send their children to a private, church-supported, non-tax-supported school.  End of problem, end of story.

It seems like we should elect a committee of citizens to distribute this largess.

The largesse is already distributed in the tax-supported services and the stable society that everyone except them pays for.  That’s the sneaky thing about <strike>subsidies</strike> tax exemptions.

In the long run people won’t pay a government employee to teach their kids something they don’t want their kids taught.

True.  You’ve identified the biggest problem in curriculum decisions.  Schools were founded for the common economic good, but if the (taxpaying) parents want that ol’time religion and think it’s science…  I suppose other countries will be happy to pick up the competitive advantage.

I think public schools are a slow-motion train wreck and a staggering waste of taxpayers’ money… not because they teach science but because they do such a poor job of it.

Damned if I know the answer.  But teaching religion is the church’s job.  Public schools would screw that up, too, if you gave them the chance.

It seems like we should elect a committee of citizens to distribute this largess. Local church board elections—I wonder why we don’t have those?

But we do have school board elections. The board members decide what’s taught in the schools. If they don’t do what the voters want, the voters elect someone else. In the long run people won’t pay a government employee to teach their kids something they don’t want their kids taught.

We decide what’s taught in government schools because we’re all taxed to pay for them. Our government only works with the consent of the governed. If you have local control of schools, this is the local control you have.

Is Mister Monem taxed to pay the minister’s salary?

You bet he is.  (Tax-exemption = tax-supported subsidy)  That doesn’t mean the minister’s agenda belongs in the classroom, though, any more than the church is obligated to teach biology.