Cite as: 530 U. S. 793 (2000)
O'Connor, J., concurring in judgment
Respondents note that in Agostini we did not overrule that portion of Ball holding the Community Education program unconstitutional. Under that program, the government paid religious school teachers to operate as part-time public teachers at their religious schools by teaching secular classes at the conclusion of the regular schoolday. Ball, 473 U. S., at 376-377. Relying on both the majority opinion and my separate opinion in Ball, respondents therefore contend that we must presume that religious school teachers will inculcate religion in their students. If that is so, they argue, we must also presume that religious school teachers will be unable to follow secular restrictions on the use of instructional materials and equipment lent to their schools by the government. See Brief for Respondents 26-29.
I disagree, however, that the latter proposition follows from the former. First, as our holding in Allen and its reaffirmance in Meek and Wolman demonstrate, the Court's willingness to assume that religious school instructors will inculcate religion has not caused us to presume also that such instructors will be unable to follow secular restrictions on the use of textbooks. I would similarly reject any such presumption regarding the use of instructional materials and equipment. When a religious school receives textbooks or instructional materials and equipment lent with secular restrictions, the school's teachers need not refrain from teaching religion altogether. Rather, the instructors need only ensure that any such religious teaching is done without the instructional aids provided by the government. We have always been willing to assume that religious school instructors can abide by such restrictions when the aid consists of textbooks, which Justice Brennan described as "surely the heart tools of . . . education." Meek, supra, at 384 (concurring in part and dissenting in part). The same assumption should extend to instructional materials and equipment.
For the same reason, my position in Ball is distinguishable. There, the government paid for religious school instructors
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