Secular Public Education

One issue critical to the health of secular democracy is also one that Jews of most denominations have very actively supported for many generations — public education. Our public schools are secular by law, which means of course that public education is not anti-religious in any way, but rather that they do not favor any one belief or discriminate against any belief either. The mission of public schools is simply education. Our public schools by very long tradition have also been one of the primary ways we have socialized each generation to become that most essential ingredient of a democracy — an educated, informed and contributing citizenry. It is also by long tradition that so many Americans have so often said this: “A community is only as good as its public schools.”