What If Religious Schools Replaced Public Education?

The idea is hinted at, danced around, and indirectly expressed by many folks on the religious right. Talking off the record, you'll hear some people of faith say that the church should take back the schools and other societal programs, and that "take back the schools" refrain has become much more mainstream in the last few months as conservatives sense a winning issue. In the Wall Street Journal, Columbia law professor Philip Hamburger just claimed that public education is unconstitutional. Betsy DeVos continues to argue that public schools are failing and should be supplanted by a private choice system. Still, hardly anybody has expressed the idea as directly as Ohio senate candidate Josh Mandel, who last week tweeted, "Shut down government schools and put schools in churches and synagogues."