"It is impossible to maintain civilization with twelve-year-olds are having babies, with fifteen-year-olds killing each other, with seventeen-year-olds dying of aids, and with eighteen-year-olds ending up with diplomas they can't even read." (550) Newt Gingrich wrote this in a piece called "Contracting With America." He recognized in 1994 that our country was in dire need of change. The one thing he did not mention, as most politicians know not to, is how we change. I believe the key to change can be found by giving every family the tools to choose how their children will be educated. The main reason our public schools are such cultural and religious battlegrounds is that they are the only educational choice for the vast majority of students. This means that our Supreme Court, and every individual school must make endless rules concerning what religious practices are acceptable, who can initiate them, who can participate in them and so on. The following example shows just a handful of the ways that students are restricted in public schools. "At this moment, the most prominent issue involving the religion clauses of the First Amendment stems from the decision in Engel v. Vitale and subsequent cases, prohibiting prayer, Bible reading, or even a moment of silence in public schools. In addition to declaring that these are all violations of the First Amendment, the Court has held unconstitutional even practices that are neutral as among different religions, on the grounds that religion may not be preferred to irreligion." (Bork 473) All over the country there are legal debates raging over the idea of "school choice" and "school vouchers." The idea of school choice is for the government, state or federal, to fund private schools at some level, thus relieving the taxpayer. "There is a simple sort of justice in the idea, since many of us who pay tuition for our children to attend private schools believe it is unfair that we are also required to pay taxes for others" children to attend public schools.