"Public money is never without consequence"

Writing about school vouchers, Kevin Carey posted an interesting take on the Establishment Clause in The Quick and the Ed on Saturday.

The gist of his argument:
When religious schools accept public money, they are subject to federal regulation. Are they ready for that?

I’m always struck by how church / state separation issues are framed in terms of the need to protect the state from the church, when in fact the main benefit seems more to be protecting the church from the state. I’m not a religiously observant person. ... So I don’t understand why Catholic school supporters are so quick to look for an infusion of taxpayer dollars through vouchers to keep their schools afloat. Public money is never without consequence. Sometimes it’s directly regulatory, but even without visible strings there will always be subtle but powerfully accumulating pressure to conduct oneself in a way that doesn’t offend the secular authorities who pay the bills. More | C-SPAN debate