Why should religion have any influence on our lives?

[FatAndFaithless]

That's where the US and The UK seem to differ, in law at least. Over here the government can't use public money to endorse any religion (or religion over irreligion), so publicly-funded Catholic Schools or Muslim Schools would be a no-go. There's nothing stopping them from using that would-be tax money to start their own schools, which they do (and in some places they get local gov't benefits which are very iffy and being challenged currently). The gist being, the religion of the many cannot use the force of government to override the irreligion (or different religion) of the few, at least when it comes to public money.

If the government were saying "these are the schools that you must have" I could see the issue with 'endorsement' (that, to me, is was Fidel wants). But in the UK it's the parents that choose, so the endorsement, if there is any, comes from the parents and not the government. The government channels money to where parents choose. Each pupil comes, effectively, with a bag of tax-payers money - the more pupils a school attracts the more public money it gets (and as it grows it can apply for capital funding for more buildings, or it can take over a failing school).

What we do have for state-funded schools, and I very much support, is a core curriculum that all schools must teach. So whether it is a Catholic, Anglican, Muslim or non-faith school there is a standard body of teaching that all pupils receive.That core includes a good solid foundation in science, maths and English, all up to the age of 16. All, for example, will be taught the theory of evolution in science classes. The freedom schools have exists around that core of teaching. There's always debate about the extent and content of the core curriculum, but it is very widely supported as a central principle of our state education.

I'm not sure I'm quite clear on that. So everyone pays taxes into the gov't, and then the gov't can use that tax money to pay for faith-based schools depending on popular...vote? So if I paid tax in England as an atheist, the government could use it for a religious school because enough Christians/Muslims/Jews voted for it?