The following letter was published in the New York Post:

Since when does a “coalition of Muslim, Jewish and Christian schools” get to decide how their share of $74 million in federal funding is spent providing educational services for their students [“Holy schools’ UFT ‘purge’ suspicious,” July 4]?

Such funding borders on a violation of the separation of church and state, and some of these schools have been consistently negligent in providing their students the secular education that is required of them by the New York State Education Department.

This so-called “religious coalition” actually has the arrogance to argue that United Federation of Teachers members “are too expensive and can sometimes be unsuited for religious environments.”

Translation: We don’t want any secular influences that may conflict with the religious teachings of our schools, but we want our share of the federal funding to expand our religious mission.

Gerard Rosenthal, retired