ABSTRACT
The right to an equal education must be balanced with the right to freedom of choice and in a liberal democracy, it is probably unfair to deny individuals the right to purchase education for the advantage of their own children. This chapter mentions that in England faith schools have to an extent become another form of backdoor selection and places in faith schools are often sought after, not out of any sense of religious devotion but out of a perception that these schools somehow filter out the ‘less desirable’ elements of society and are therefore able to offer a higher standard of education. In a secular democracy, there’s no place for the funding of faith schools from the public purse. Such schools deny choice to local children and parents who find their local school has a bias towards values that are contradictory to their own.
