Jonah Goldberg once wrote, Government money only pays for the “liberties” the government thinks you should have, and therefore it can determine how you exercise them. That turns liberties into privileges dispensed at the whim of the state.

To put it more simply: Government money always has strings attached. The Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) has been preaching this for years: “Government money always has strings attached, and with increased involvement comes increased regulations. The gift may be given with good intentions, but when it comes to the freedom of homeschooling we ought to be wary.” We here at TPOL do, also.

So?

Far too many people do not, we say again, do not understand this fundamental characteristic of government. Time and time again, people agitate for government funding of private schools. And even homeschooling. The entire concept of “charter schools” which has spread from State to State over the last several decades is a variant of that. The are “quasi-public, quasi-private” institutions. But they suffer under hundreds of strings imposed by the Feds, their State, and generally their local governments (including school district boards and administrators).

Several States have passed laws that provide for funding of private schools, and even subsidize homeschooling by such things as providing free textbooks, access to sports programs, and other ways of reducing burdens on families. The major burden is that families pay massive amounts of money in property taxes that support the near-monopolistic “public” (government-run, tax-funded: GRTF) schools. At the same time as they are paying tuition and expenses to let their children actually get an education either in a private school or at home. Why? The politicians are buying votes, for one.

Among the States are Arkansas, Iowa, South Carolina, and Nebraska. Others are no doubt doing some variation of that game.

Most private schools are religious in nature, and by modern definition “sectarian” – tied to a particular religious group. From the ubiquitous Roman Catholic parochial schools to independent “christian academies” and even Muslim madrassas and Jewish synagogue schools, they are found in every State, but are a very tiny amount of schools and students relative to GRTF schools.

We are talking big bucks here: a recent study indicates that in 2024, the average money spent in a GRTF school, K-12, for a single student is now over $400,000. And nearing a half-million FRN. Inflated or not, this is incredible. That is 40,000 FRN per year. Although there are elite private schools that

The South Carolina Supremes have recently declared that state funding of scholarships for students in private schools violates the SC Constitution. In a 3-2 decision, the court ruled that the Education Scholarship Trust Fund (ESTF) program violates the state constitution’s ban on granting funding for the “direct benefit” of private schools. The ESTF issued payments to lower- and moderate-income families that could be used to send children to better public and private schools. Apparently only the private school part is a violation.

However, some Federal strings have little relation to the project being funded and are solely about Federal control. Some examples regarding Federal Highway Funds were enforcement of the national 55 MPH speed limit, national motorcycle helmet law and raising the drinking age to 21.

There are many States that have this no-funding rule embedded in their constitutions. Sometimes the language used is “sectarian schools.” This is not found in the federal Constitution. It seems to have originated in the post-War between the States era – the last 30 years of the 19th Century. The impetus, according to many historians, was anti-Catholicism: a fear and hatred of Catholics and their parochial schools. There is no doubt, too, that this was part and parcel of the origins of the GOP in refugees from the failed socialist uprisings in Germany and other parts of Europe. In Germany and some other countries, the state financed both “public” and “sectarian” schools: you could send your child to a Catholic or a Evangelische (Lutheran) school. As late as the 1980s that was still the case.

So Congress forced States to include a prohibition on funding non-governmental schools in their Constitutions before they could be admitted to the Union. Probably, this same requirement applied to the unsuccessful rebel States – they had to be “readmitted” and so Congress “had a string” on them. (Another requirement to be imbedded in constitutions of that era was a commitment to being an “inseparable” member of the Union.)

To sum things up, if parents and teachers want teaching of children to be truly separated from State or any governmental control, they need to recognize that is only going to happen if not a single dollar of government money, for any program, for any use, is accepted. And the best way to do that is to do just what the South Carolina constitution does: prohibit any payment of money. And then provide for enforcement of that prohibition.

We may rue the reason(s) for such prohibitions, but for once evil motives produced an acceptable result.

In the long term, the real solution is to completely separate schools and government: end public schools and the taxation (theft) used to support them.

Examples:

South Dakota (1889): No person shall be compelled to attend or support any ministry or place of worship against his consent nor shall any preference be given by law to any religious establishment or mode of worship. No money or property of the state shall be given or appropriated for the benefit of any sectarian or religious society or institution.

And the state of South Dakota is an inseparable part of the American Union and the Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the land.

South Carolina (1895, 7th constitution): Direct aid to religious or other private educational institutions prohibited. No money shall be paid from public funds nor shall the credit of the State or any of its political subdivisions be used for the direct benefit of any religious or other private educational institution.