Linda Greenhouse does not believe that religious organizations should have the same opportunity to run charter schools that secular groups do:

It is easy to imagine a scramble for public resources among mainstream faith groups, each with a curriculum in mind. As of 2021, some 3.7 million students were enrolled in public charter schools across the country. How many millions more might be drawn to a safely siloed religious education if it is available at taxpayer expense? And who will be left in the secular public schools?

The problem with allowing religious alternatives, you see, is that too many families will want to choose them. The public schools have to be preserved as “one of the few experiences that most Americans share” — an imperative that apparently limits how we understand the First Amendment — even if most Americans don’t want to participate.