After weeks of watching the relief efforts along the Gulf Coast, I'm tempted to define government as "a system which provides complicated solutions to simple problems." It seems to make problems, not solve them.

Government agencies handled the entire situation badly, especially the relief effort. There were exceptions, but it seemed to me that the most effective and immediate relief was coming from non-government entities, mainly faith-based organizations. They saw a need and responded immediately — without discrimination.

When natural disasters strike, it's usually the children who are hurt the most. Katrina was no exception. Next to their families and homes, children hold tightly to their schools. They are their second home, a large part of their identity. So when families were displaced, they first found shelter and then looked for schools.

President Bush knew that educating these displaced children would be a tremendous burden on any school that took them in. He proposed emergency legislation giving a "one-year, one-time" grant of up to $7,500 per student to schools which took in the displaced students. The proposed grants would be available to all displaced students for use in public, independent and religious schools. Katrina didn't discriminate by affecting only some schools. Bush believed that relief should be distributed evenly as well.

However, the Senate relief bill (S. 1715), as introduced by Sens. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) and Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) ignores independent and religious schools. Only public schools are eligible for education-related relief.

Michael Stein, president of Margolin Hebrew Academy in Memphis, Tenn., recently testified before Congress that his school enrolled 24 displaced students, giving them free tuition with no questions asked. The children were given school uniforms, textbooks, supplies and lunches. He hired additional staff and provided professional psychological support. This was done, according to Stein, in spite of "having no way of knowing the cost or where the money would come from."

In similar testimony, Sister M. Michaeline Green, superintendent of schools for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Baton Rouge, La., stated that in four "severely impacted" parishes (the Louisiana equivalent of counties), approximately 61,000 students of the 187,000 total student population attend nonpublic schools. The schools of the Diocese of Baton Rouge alone have seen a 25 percent increase in enrollment because of Katrina.

As to whether it's constitutional to distribute relief money to religious and independent schools, the U.S. Attorney General's Office has issued an opinion that it sees nothing in the "establishment" clause of the Constitution which would bar such aid. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings said that whether student evacuees attend private schools or public schools, government has "a responsibility to them."

I know there are some who would ask if this relief aid might be a foot-in-the-door approach to the voucher issue. Frankly, I've heard that sentiment, and I find it cynical at best and hurtful at worst. I just don't see the religious and independent schools hijacking a disaster like Katrina for an advantage in pending legislation.

I'd say it's common knowledge that when disaster strikes and Americans need help, they get the most immediate help through private agencies. I'm not talking about putting out the house fire; I'm talking about helping the family afterward. Is it possible for anyone to respond quicker than the Salvation Army? Is there anything longer on earth than the line for government aid?

Please, Congress, get real. Government hasn't done a very good job with hurricane relief. Among the "first with the most" have been the religious and independent schools.