The Home Front:
BOHN, WILLIAM E.
THE HOME FRONT By William E. Bohn American Unity and the Problem of Federal Aid to Education A month AGO the country looked forward to a long and happy "honeymoon" with an energetic...
...Jefferson and Madison and their friends considered the public schools the cornerstones of the Republic...
...I grew up among Catholics and went to a school where Catholics and Protestants were about evenly numbered...
...The two forms of aid are essentially the same...
...And all this time they lived in closest contact with the rest of us...
...By pressing for aid only for the public schools he has made substantial assistance to education possible within the present year...
...What was wrong with this situation...
...But our educational problems would have remained the same...
...Furthermore, Catholic parents were not constantly complaining about the great expenses which they had to bear...
...A united country was a part of the vision of our Founding Fathers...
...When the Supreme Court forbids the giving of public money to church schools it is interpreting not only a form of words but stout old folk traditions that go back to the Revolution...
...Religion had nothing to do with our national feeling of good fortune...
...It was difficult for either group to have prejudices about the other, for we were a part of one another's lives...
...They wanted, above all, to keep clear of that sort of thing in this country...
...The great lesson to be learned was that this is one country...
...Was there anything wrong with the religion or the lives of Jim, Mike and Pat and the other boys I played with...
...But today I am more depressed than optimistic...
...The horrible tales of religious wars in Europe were a part of their family histories...
...The youth of all faiths would read the same histories and recite the same orations and poems...
...They would play games together, their associations from childhood on would mold them together, give them a chance to know one another and develop mutual trust...
...But every time I tried to explain why I think our state and Federal government should not support church schools, I found myself in trouble...
...In rejecting this idea the President has shown courage and clear-headedness...
...If ever we applied our minds sharply and realistically to a public problem, this is the time to do it...
...It is to be hoped that we can keep things that way...
...A previous bill granting aid to church schools was pronounced unconstitutional...
...Race prejudice is still a dirty smear across our land, but hatred among religious sects is practically nonexistent...
...THE HOME FRONT By William E. Bohn American Unity and the Problem of Federal Aid to Education A month AGO the country looked forward to a long and happy "honeymoon" with an energetic and optimistic young President...
...From the public schools they were to secure not merely a knowledge of the sciences and the arts but that sense of unity which was necessary to public safety...
...I may be accused of arguing against the very existence of parochial schools...
...Now I am about to make another try and I shall probably be denounced all over again by some of my Catholic friends...
...John F. Kennedy's program contained many proposals which promised to relieve various troublesome situations...
...But Congress now proposes to get round this danger by adding an amendment which would allot low interest loans to private schools rather than direct grants...
...I think that the President is right and during the coming debate I shall give him what support I can...
...I do think that our Republic would be stronger if our private and public school systems were made one...
...I am not against giving public money to church schools only because the First Amendment says: "Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion...
...A dark shadow has fallen over our national life...
...Thus far we have succeeded rather well...
...The President is eager to have his bill passed quickly and in such form that it will not be knocked out by the Supreme Court...
...This debate over the limitations of the education bill is likely to create some nasty and troublesome side-effects...
...I am talking about the Federal education-aid bill and the argument over what schools it should include...
...It was their hope that the youth of our nation would attend the same kind of institutions...
...There is little evidence of the friendliness which characterized both groups when they attended the same classes and learned the same lessons...
...If the one is unconstitutional, the other would doubtless be given the same classification...
...The Chief Executive could have avoided a fight and dodged the danger of making some 40 million Catholic enemies...
...There was opposition here and there, but it looked as if a fair proportion of the proposals would go through Congress and be translated into law before the end of the present session...
Vol. 44 • March 1961 • No. 12
