Conflicts Inherent in Government-Run Schools are Endless

In a recent post at The Objective Standard blog, Natalie Ogle discusses the recent controversy over the Liberty High School valedictorian's speech in which the graduating student recited The Lord's Prayer in defiance of the First Amendment's Establishment Clause (the separation of church and state) as well as the rules of the tax-funded public school. 

Ogle notes that:

On the one hand, students are not agents of the government and thus are not properly forbidden from expressing their religious views in government-run schools. . . .
On the other hand, a “public” school graduation ceremony is a government-sponsored event, and speeches given at such an event can reasonably be regarded as sanctioned by the government school. Allowing students to give religious speeches at such events reasonably could be seen as a government endorsement of religion.

Ogle, making the same essential point I made in a previous post regarding standardized tests, said: 

This conundrum highlights the inherent problem with government-run schools. Such controversies are impossible to settle without people being forced to fund and hear the expression of ideas with which they disagree—or being forbidden from expressing views that they regard as important.

Read the rest of Valedictorian's Speech Highlights Problems Inherent in Government Schools.

Related Reading:

"The Message of Christ" and New Jersey's Education Wars

Separation of Religion (or Education) and State

Religion and Education Should Both Be Separate From the State

The Conflict Over Standardized Testing Is a Consequence of Government-Run Schools