I can't believe these posters saying that the problem isn't the existence of faith schools, but a shortage of community schools. The point is that these schools are part of the state system, and the vast bulk of their costs are paid by the taxpayer. You must all know that it is no kind of solution for the Govt to just build loads of extra community schools so there is a surplus of places, in order to provide everybody with free choice. It's just not going to happen, and nor should it. But by saying it you avoid facing up to the core issue which is that our publicly-funded school system gives children of faith a privileged position over others.
Of course, if the state decided to ban religious discrimination in school admissions, the churches might throw their toys out of the pram. And that would be a problem that would have to be overcome. I'm not sure I can quite believe that the churches would rather see hundreds of schools close down, though?
Interesting that our hospitals all largely started as church institutions (because the Church used to be the major provider of public welfare provision). Presumably many of our older hospitals started out as church-owned property? Surely nobody here would argue that hospitals should be able to have faith-based admission criteria? And Christian adoption agencies have been forced to stop discriminating against gay adopters if they want to continue receiving public funding. So why is religious discrimination not ok there, but is ok in education?