"We cannot deny it to parents of other faiths," she believes Faith schools will not add to community divisions, the education secretary will say when she defends government plans to expand religion's role in the delivery of education.
Estelle Morris will tell the General Synod of the Church of England that the new schools must be "tolerant" and "inclusive" if they are admitted to the state sector in a bid to convince a growing band of secular and liberal sceptics of the government's policy. The minister will tell the synod that the government wants to meet concerns that the schools will deepen community divisions, and will argue that since 1997 only six schools with a religious basis have been admitted to the state sector from faiths other than the Church of England and the Roman Catholic church.
Thousands of children already attend schools for the those two religions. "We cannot deny it to parents of other faiths," she believes. But she will say it is better if they are in the state sector and follow the national curriculum, equal opportunities legislation, and teach citizenship.
Her remarks will aim to counter concerns raised by Gurbux Singh, chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, that more religious schools would add to tensions in multi-ethnic communities such as Oldham.
In an exclusive interview with ePolitix.com earlier this year he called on the government to consider the issue as part of a wider education debate, warning there was clear evidence from Northern Ireland of increased segregation.
"Clearly it is an issue that can contribute to segregation. We've only got to look at the events in Northern Ireland to see the consequences of segregated education, and the divisions it can create both within society and also in terms of social interaction of young people," he said. "In terms of education segregation, it cannot be right that in 17 primary schools in Oldham, 90 plus per cent of the school role are of one ethnic group. Faith schools may well contribute to that. Now I'm not actually saying that we should be calling for government to not give recognition to faith schools because there are very complex matters attached to it. But we do need to look at the question of faith schools."
The Morris's defence of faith schools has drawn criticism from atheists who dismissed her comments as token words that do not go far enough.
"Simply insisting that faith schools should be 'inclusive' is meaningless", said Keith Porteous Wood, executive director of the National Secular Society. "All they need to do to achieve this is to open their doors to one person from outside the chosen faith."
He described the government's idea that through linking the new schools with other schools religious bigotry would be overcome as "wishful thinking".
"It's a cynic's charter, and the government appear to be offering religious schools a loophole to keep their privileges. A better approach would be to scrap religious entry requirements completely. There is no justification for such discrimination in publicly funded bodies. Faith schools should be open to all pupils regardless of faith or lack of it," he said.