The Nation: Battle Over Schools

Amid the muffled clank of advancing legal artillery and the kindling of beacon fires from pulpit and platform, the U.S. was lining up for a major debate over federal assistance to religious schools. Ironically, the commander of the forces opposed to aid for private schools was the nation's first Roman Catholic President, and his principal opponents were the hierarchy of his own church.

At issue was the Administration's request to Congress for federal aid to U.S. education: $3,327,500,000 over the next five years for undergraduate scholarships and for college classrooms and...