What defines your religion?

What indeed? But first the story. I quote:

Is being a Jew a matter of bloodline or religious practice? The UK's new Supreme Court is debating the subject this week, in a case that could have a wider impact on faith schools

As it so happens, the public government run schooling system is frankly at the bottom of the pile, the top of the pile belong to the independent fee paid private schools, followed by the faith schools. It is a damning indictment of the same. But then, because going for better education for your children is a peculiarly middle class sentiment, parents do all kinds of strange things to get their kids into a good school.

The middle school where my kids go to was in the news recently when the local council decided to prosecute a parent for effectively lying to get her son into that school. See this story about how the local council trying to check (as usual, when you have a constrained supply then all these kinds of shenanigans will happen) parental fraud.

Anyway, lets get back to the religious schools. That’s where you had an issue with parents suddenly becoming religious and trying to enter into religious grant maintained schools. This particular case hinges on an interesting situation and raises questions like:

how do you define faith? Is religion a matter of who you are? What you believe? Or what you do?

Pretty tough questions, eh? Previously the Jewish school would give admission to any child born to Jewish mothers. So far so good, but what about if the father is Jewish and the mother is not but the child practises Jewish rituals and stuff? According to the Race Relations Act, the child is Jewish, but not according to the rules of the school which uses traditional Jewish Law.

Go to the BBC site, they have some very interesting comments, but if these religious schools are being funded out of my tax money, then by heck, they better be consistent. If I had my way, i would shut them down and open them as charter schools. Then there is no problem. You cannot resolve this problem when you have the other problem of a state run horrible schooling system.