what’s mind boggling is how little you seem to know about politics and life. if there was a meeting between the state and local yeshivas, and the state was convinced they want to help us with tuition, (not that they should or have to, again my point is if they wanted to help us they can) they will say OK I’m sold, but we have a legal issue, the yeshivas can say (this is one of a hundred ideas) we will have 2 schools both renting space from a 3rd entity (a church can rent space from you, doesn’t mean you own a church or that you’re a priest)now the state is helping ONLY a secular school with no religious affiliation!!
That subterfuge is even sillier than the previous one. It doesn’t matter whom you rent space from. A secular school can rent space from a church and be funded by the state. The only two things that prohibit state funding are if religion is taught or if the school is controlled by a religious institution. Whom you rent space from is really irrelevant.
But, hey, let’s take this a bit further and say that it works. Let’s say the politicians decide to do it and let’s say that no disgruntled taxpayers file suit to stop the payments. Great — you now have two schools — a yeshiva and a secular school which is not run or controlled by a religious institution. Now what do you do when a group of Catholics want to enroll in your secular school (but not in your yeshiva)? How are you going to keep them out? Or will you admit them?
it actually does, take your head out of the sand and you’ll see the government can and does do as it pleases, it bends laws, it breaks laws, it changes them as it pleases. welcome to politics, but it is what it is!
Frankly, your assertion here is just mind-boggling. You are, in essence, accusing just about every politician of corruption. So why even have a constitution then? Why even have laws?
The fact of the matter is that the state cannot violate it’s own Constitution. If it does, it will be sued and the courts will force it to abide by the constitution. That’s the way it works, despite your assertion to the contrary. What prevents New York (or any other jurisdiction) from simply outlawing Judaism? The constitutional protections. What prevents a cop from just breaking into your home and searching for evidence of a crime without a warrant*? The Constitution. Believe it or not, it does work.
I guess at this point we simply have to agree to disagree. You believe that we live in anarchy, where laws can be ignored willy-nilly and that politicians are free to do whatever they conceive of without consequence or reprisal from authorities or the voters. I believe we live in a society with laws and order. Are there some people in government who are corrupt as you pointed out? Sure there are, but they don’t represent the system as a whole.
You seem to believe that it’s okay to engage in dishonesty and chicanery to get what you want from the government. You have no problem with creating “secular” schools which are really controlled by religious authorities. You have no problem with government giving tens of millions of dollars as “lunch money” when it’s clearly for something else. I believe in honesty and being above-board. I believe in being up-front with the tax payers about what they are paying for. If they’re paying for tuition for religious schools, then label it as such.
Lastly, I’m fairly certain that you are inconsistent. You would have no problem with the state government ignoring the Blaine Amendment, but at the same time you would scream bloody murder if the Federal government simply ignored the Freedom of Religion clause and said “all Jews get out.” I have a problem with that. I believe government should be consistent.
The Wolf
* Yes, it won’t actually stop the cop from busting in, but it will cause any evidence that they collect in that raid to be inadmissible in court.
Your second post came in while I was composing this, so I didn’t address those points in this post. I will do so in the next post.