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Our public schools began as ministries of the church; now it is time to return them to the Lord.

I am and have always been a strong proponent of public education. But by the virtue of its very nature - publicly funded schools cannot offer the type of spiritual education that Catholic schools have long provided.

In America our public schools are intended to be religiously neutral. Our teachers and schools are neither to endorse nor to inhibit religion. I believe this is a very good thing.

As a proud Catholic, I know the impact that faith-based education can have in our society and have witnessed it first hand in my district.

If all the rich and all of the church people should send their children to the public schools they would feel bound to concentrate their money on improving these schools until they met the highest ideals.

The difference between the denominational system and the public school system is all the difference between bolstering them up on the one hand and letting them alone of the other.

Education should be totally secular. I am not telling people not to believe in God, but it should be a personal matter which should be done at home.

Leave the matter of religion to the family altar, the church, and the private school, supported entirely by private contributions. Keep the church and state forever separate.

In Holland, they have come to precisely the same conclusion. There they have adopted a system of secular education, because they have found it impracticable to unite the religious bodies in any system of combined religious instruction.

Society is so divided in its perception of public school people. Most people who went to public school behave in the right way, but every now and then there will be someone who comes along and ruins it.