Sir, - To say, as you did in your leader (March 13th), that "the elected government which pays the piper of the national education system has the right to call the tune" is wrong. A government has no such right. The people pay the piper, civil servants would call the tune.
You are right to say that "Irish parents - whether Catholic Protestant, Muslim or of no religion at all - are the best judges of their children's education". So let us empower the parents. Give them vouchers to be spent at the school of their choice, including denominational schools if they wish as many do, or schools they have themselves created. Give the parents tax relief against school fees. These measures would democratise and improve education, and encourage civic responsibility.
In all other respects, banish the state from education. You have been beguiled, by the largely benign role the state has hitherto played in education in this country, to concentrate only on the desirability of secular as opposed to religious control. Even in that regard, you are harking back to conditions no longer with us.
You should be aware of the great evils brought about in other countries in this century through state control of education: Germany, South Africa, the former Communist bloc, and so on and so on. If this remark seems extreme, remember that the price of liberty is eternal vigilance. - Yours, etc.,
Wellington Road,
Ballsbridge,
Dublin 4.