What is "indoctrination"?

[Paul Salamanca]

In the context of a school choice plan like the plan at issue in Zelman, I
wonder whether the concept of "indoctrination" has any significance at
all.  Suppose a school pursues a course of aggressive indoctrination, but
along the way teaches reading, writing, and arithmetic in a manner
competent to prepare students for a worklife.  What difference should it
make that the school also "indoctrinates," if the parents have a meaningful
option to send their children elsewhere?  By the same reasoning, what
difference should it make if the government requires people convicted of
multiple DUIs to attend AA (which I argue is clearly religious) or a
non-religious alternative, so long as the choice between the two is
meaningful?  Why can't the focus be on the secular nature of the service
that the government buys --- instruction in the three R's, or group therapy
to prevent substance abuse.  If the service purchased by the government can
be described in and measured according to purely secular terms, and if
people have meaningful secular options, I wonder what relevance the degree
of indoctrination has.  Of course, there are some activities, such as
worship and ritual, that so completely lack a secular component that
government funding of them would be impossible.

I recognize that this is an unconventional position, but I do think it
needs to be taken into account.