You think it is OK to have to **PROVE** to the government your religion? Huh?
Where is that in the First Amendment?
I see your point and acknowledge that there is a first amendment issue.
But we are working with world as it is not the world as we wish it to be.
Government schools exist and are not likely to go away soon. I doubt the USSC will anytime soon take up the issue of Government schools being incompatible with the 1st Amendment
So I think we will just have to find some way of making a compromise with religious freedom and school dress codes.
I disagree. Large and seemingly intractable institutions can and *have** lost their legitimacy overnight. Some examples are slavery, the Protestant Reformation, the American Revolution, the fall of absolute monarchy, Jim Crow, women and the vote...etc.
Nearly every state in the Union ( all?) have some form of charters, vouchers, and tax credits. The waiting lists are enormous for these programs. The legislators are not deaf to the cries and pleas of the families. And....The biggest factor is the state budgets. Vouchers, tax credits, and charters are the quickest and most rational way to balance the state budget and get from under the thumb of the teacher union benefits and retirement.
Also...Taxpayers are sick of the high property taxes ( in some states as high as one parent's entire take-home salary) to pay for government schools that teach atheism and Marxism and fail to teach basic reading and arithmetic.
I am very hopeful.
Besides....It is now becoming common knowledge that it is impossible to have a religiously neutral education. Secularism in our government schools is nothing more that government established religion of atheism. Parents and taxpayers are sick of it.