Oh, public schools, you’re so terrible. I know this for a fact — I spent 12 years of my early life in the public education system. (As probably did you; and if you don’t agree that they’re terrible — you’ve got some more learning to do, young man or woman.)

Unfortunately, private schools offer no immediate solution, as the government-blessed monopoly created by the public system leaves private institutions only for the very religious — or very rich.

With all of that in mind, let’s move on to the news. The Star Tribune in St. Paul, Minnesota reports:

Charter schools are public schools and by law must not endorse or promote religion.

Evidence suggests, however, that [Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy, a K-8 charter school] is an Islamic school, funded by Minnesota taxpayers.

TIZA has many characteristics that suggest a religious school. It shares the headquarters building of the Muslim American Society of Minnesota, whose mission is “establishing Islam in Minnesota.” The building also houses a mosque. TIZA’s executive director, Asad Zaman, is a Muslim imam, or religious leader, and its sponsor is an organization called Islamic Relief.

Students pray daily, the cafeteria serves halal food - permissible under Islamic law — and “Islamic Studies” is offered at the end of the school day.

Zaman maintains that TIZA is not a religious school. He declined, however, to allow me to visit the school to see for myself, “due to the hectic schedule for statewide testing.” But after I e-mailed him that the Minnesota Department of Education had told me that testing would not begin for several weeks, Zaman did not respond — even to urgent calls and e-mails seeking comment before my first column on TIZA.

Now, however, an eyewitness has stepped forward. Amanda Getz of Bloomington is a substitute teacher. She worked as a substitute in two fifth-grade classrooms at TIZA on Friday, March 14. Her experience suggests that school-sponsored religious activity plays an integral role at TIZA.

Arriving on a Friday, the Muslim holy day, she says she was told that the day’s schedule included a “school assembly” in the gym after lunch.

Before the assembly, she says she was told, her duties would include taking her fifth-grade students to the bathroom, four at a time, to perform “their ritual washing.”

Afterward, Getz said, “teachers led the kids into the gym, where a man dressed in white with a white cap, who had been at the school all day,” was preparing to lead prayer. Beside him, another man “was prostrating himself in prayer on a carpet as the students entered.”

“The prayer I saw was not voluntary,” Getz said. “The kids were corralled by adults and required to go to the assembly where prayer occurred.”

Islamic Studies was also incorporated into the school day. “When I arrived, I was told ‘after school we have Islamic Studies,’ and I might have to stay for hall duty,” Getz said. “The teachers had written assignments on the blackboard for classes like math and social studies. Islamic Studies was the last one — the board said the kids were studying the Qu’ran. The students were told to copy it into their planner, along with everything else. That gave me the impression that Islamic Studies was a subject like any other.”

After school, Getz’s fifth-graders stayed in their classroom and the man in white who had led prayer in the gym came in to teach Islamic Studies. TIZA has in effect extended the school day — buses leave only after Islamic Studies is over. Getz did not see evidence of other extra-curricular activity, except for a group of small children playing outside. Significantly, 77 percent of TIZA parents say that their “main reason for choosing TIZA … was because of after-school programs conducted by various non-profit organizations at the end of the school period in the school building,” according to a TIZA report. TIZA may be the only school in Minnesota with this distinction.

Why does the Minnesota Department of Education allow this sort of religious activity at a public school? According to Zaman, the department inspects TIZA regularly — and has done so “numerous times” — to ensure that it is not a religious school.

But the department’s records document only three site visits to TIZA in five years — two in 2003-04 and one in 2007, according to Assistant Commissioner Morgan Brown. None of the visits focused specifically on religious practices.

Let’s see… I could play a few angles with this story. For example, I could argue that this story is a clear example of how most people (non-Muslims) are afraid of Islam, and as a result will bend over backwards to accommodate to Muslims’ religious needs — even if it violates the constitution and all precedent law. Can you imagine a publicly funded Catholic school, complete with an in-school church and a Priest as director? San Francisco would secede before that happens.

But I won’t go there (girlfriend), because there’s a better point to make:

This kind of stuff doesn’t happen with school choice!

If Muslims want to send their children to Islamic schools, if Catholics want to send their children to Catholic schools, or if people — like me — want to send their children to science-and-math-emphasized schools — so be it!

It’s pointless to debate microscopic issues (like the one in Minnesota) without addressing the overarching problem. But, I honestly don’t see school choice being a reality anytime soon, so… I don’t know.