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Decision on vouchers continues the myth

A federal judge's ruling that Ohio's school voucher program violates the Constitution is another example of the power of the myth about "separation of church and state."

The judge did not use that phrase, but he might as well have.

The granting of tax-financed vouchers to enable families of little means to have the same breadth of opportunity for education as other families neither:

• Reflects a law "respecting and establishment of religion;" not does it
• Prohibit the free exercise of religion.

What it does is offend those who want to protect every tax dollar now committed to public schools.

By the way, the Constitution the voucher program is supposed to violate says nothing about the government being involved in education. Nothing.

It does say: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

By the time the voucher issue makes its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, we may find that the enactment of a voucher system may be left to the states.

That would be for the best.

The voucher program not only would expand opportunities for some students, it also would be a catalyst for improvement in some of the nation's worst public schools, especially those in major cities.

U.S. District Judge Solomon Oliver Jr. in his ruling allowed the more than 3,500 Ohio children in the voucher program to continue there during appeals.

At the end of the extended time that is likely to take, we are likely to see that vouchers will not only be found to be constitutional, they also will prove to be successful.