In Britain, Polly Toynbee writes about how publicly-funded religious schools are increasingly segregated:
[S]egregation gets worse, with a third of schools now religious. The Young Foundation's study, The New East End, warns that in Tower Hamlets white parents have taken over four church secondary schools, making them virtually all white, so neighbouring secular schools have become 90% Bangladeshi. Church schools aid segregation: the Institute for Research in Integrated Strategies finds that the number of children taking free school meals at C of E and Catholic schools is lower than the average in an area. That means nearby schools take more, magnifying the difference. Selection is the secret "ethos" of church schools. Everyone knows it - I have just met an Enfield taxi driver whose wife goes to church to get their child into a church school. Is that choice?
As Christian hypocrisy keeps poor children out, others demand their own religious schools. The Leicester Islamic Academy turns state school next year, but the duty to accept 25% non-Muslims may not trouble it much. The principal said on The Moral Maze that all girls must wear the school uniform, both the hijab and the head-to-toe jilbab. Not much choice there. The Commission for Racial Equality says trust schools and parental choice are leading to parents choosing schools of their own ethnicity.
Will the next Labour leader be brave enough to confront growing segregation? If so, start by ending all religious state education. It would be popular: a Guardian/ICM poll finds 64% of voters think "the government should not be funding faith schools of any kind". Desegregating schools is a matter of fairness: Muslims have the poorest communities with the worst schools, and are in danger of increasing isolation and anger. The veil is another totem of that danger.
Source: Guardian
In the American South, white parents sent their children to religious schools to a large extent precisely so that they could learn in an all-white environment, avoiding the desegregated public schools. Isn't it curious that something rather similar is developing in Britain? Is it really just coincidence that Christian schools are becoming largely white while the secular schools are not?
Toynbee's recommendation strikes me as sound: if religious schools are going to participate in racial and class segregation, then let them do it with their own money and not with funds contributed by those who are discriminated against. Perhaps Christian churches will always be segregated, which would mean that the schools they create will also be segregated, but if that's the case then they should be private.
Religion in Public Schools:
Interestingly, as the number of faith “schools” increases, religious belief amongst kids is decreasing. Depending on who’s poll you read, anywhere between 60-80% of 13-18 year olds describe themselves as having no religion.
The government has no obligation to fund religious activities in any way. In fact, its the government keeping religion around: if you think about it, if government funds were taken away from religious institutions, and they would be forced to rely on their own private funds, they would have drastically smaller budgets and in some places may vanish entirely.