Poll shows two-thirds opposed to public funding for faith schools

London, England - Two out of three Britons oppose public funding for faith-based schools, according to an opinion poll published Tuesday. Christian churches have long been involved in education, with the Church of England backing a quarter of English primary schools. Government ministers have recently proposed expanded funding for Muslim schools. The poll by ICM for The Guardian newspaper found that 64 percent of respondents agreed that “the government should not be funding faith schools of any kind.” One-fourth of those polled said that Muslim schools should be treated on the same basis as Christian and Jewish schools, while 8 percent wanted to limit public funding to Christian and Jewish schools only. The poll of 1,006 adults was conducted by telephone on Aug. 14-16, and had a margin of error of about 3 percentage points.