City Journal: Conservative families have long been accustomed to funding a public education system that teaches values contrary to their own. Now, a Florida program that uses public tax credits to support private scholarships for low-income students at parochial schools is under fire because Christian schools are, well, Christian. Having failed to defeat school-choice programs on the merits, the Left is turning to anti-religious bigotry to attack Florida’s Tax Credit Scholarship Program, which serves more than 100,000 children.
Florida’s initiative, the nation’s largest school-choice program, has faced a sustained assault from the local press for the Christian curricula of some of its participating schools. The Huffington Post created a chart chronicling the “offensive” views that Christian schools teach, from creationism to Biblical distinctions between the sexes. The Orlando Sentinel called what students learn at private schools “hillbilly science” and “a 12-year sentence to some anamorphic Sunday school class from hell.” The Left’s anti-school-choice hysteria increasingly echoes Senator Dianne Feinstein’s chiding of Judge Amy Coney Barrett last year: “the dogma lives loudly within you.”
Media attacks on the curricula and values in schools of choice rarely include an examination of the values on offer at taxpayer-funded public schools. In 2016, a Palm Beach high school teacher’s final exam included the question, “If Donald Trump becomes President of the United States, we are: A. Screwed, B. Screwed, C. Screwed, or D. Screwed behind a really YUGE wall that Mexico pays for.” Another school took its cheerleading squad and band to perform at a Hillary Clinton political rally as a field trip. A third Florida school required students to recite “There is no god but God; Muhammad is the prophet of God.” None of these incidents got much play in the Sentinel. more here
Paying the property tax is bad enough but to have these lowlife teachers pushing their personal politics on the students should be cause for dismissal. That goes triple for shoving muslim garbage down their throats. That warrants a firing squad.
I don’t have the words to express my contempt for the lefts double standards and hypocrisy.
I think their biggest objection is children actually getting an education versus an indoctrination. The former is a threat to their strangle hold on power where they have it and the latter allows that strangle hold to spread out.
Don’t send your pussy ass, sissyfied, safe space seeking, oft offended, gender confused country hating punk kids to those schools. Problem solved!
I had a first hand look at both a Catholic school and a public school. At the time, I thought the overall quality of teachers at the public school was higher. The facilities at the public school were better. The resources at the public school were more plentiful. By these measures, the education at the public school should have been better.
But it wasn’t. The Catholic school enforced morality, which was not necessarily Catholic dogma. (They had significant numbers of Protestant, Jewish and Muslim students). They had reasonable rules which were enforced. Students had to pass classes based upon objective factors. Shortcuts in education were not allowed, and parents had to be interested in their students’ education. And, most importantly, the Catholic school fostered an atmosphere of success and accomplishment; if students and their families did not buy into the system, they were encouraged to leave.
In our area, the major argument against vouchers was that the good students would leave to attend the Catholic/parochial schools. This is a tacit admission that the public schools were not adequately providing for these students’ needs and goals, so why shouldn’t they leave? Why should high achievers and motivated students be chained to schools that offer mediocre education?
Liberals complain that wealthy people have all of the advantages. Vouchers enable poor students to attain the same educational opportunities as wealthy kids, so this should be a liberal dream. The only rationale for liberals anti-voucher stance is that they deem the indoctrination more important than any education.
re: The only rationale for liberals anti-voucher stance is that they deem the indoctrination more important than any education.
Wyatt, great comment. I would add that the teacher unions have a bit to do with the fight against vouchers. Private schools/Catholic schools are not unionized and therefore are out of their control.
Caveat emptor—let the buyer beware. Inform the parents that their children may be exposed to some religious opinions and ideas. If the informed parents still decide to send their kids there, no problem.
i will tell you this and its the unvarnished truth. My wifes Christian School is 7 miles from city limits. Thats quite the commute for little Jack and Jill and parents. Registration at her 6-12 school is up 15-20% already for the next year. If SDak were to offer vouchers enrollment would triple. Overnight. Minimum.
Leftists are in fear that is caused by their wanting to control everyone’s lives. The natural inclination of the people they are controlling is to eventually lash out in self defense. That time is fast approaching.
My kids learn hillbilly French at public school. Wee wee, y’all!
Wyatt – You touch on a very valid point, that being if you provide a learning environment for the kids, most will learn. The quality of the teacher, from an academic standpoint is not as important as the overall environment that promotes discipline and learning both in school and at home.
The other important factor is putting like with like. So instead of placing everyone at the same level (out of Political Correctness so that you don’t offend anyone), you create learning environments for slower kids and ones for more advanced kids. The point is it simply does not matter how good the teacher is if the environment is one of confusion (too fast for me), frustration (too slow for me), disrespect and bedlam.
Then we can talk about Common Core which I personally think is the Left’s plan to deliberately confuse the minds of the next generation so that they cannot possibly think straight!
#Ratfink and SqueakyWheel: Very valid points. The teacher’s unions don’t really care about the students, and grouping students (as was done when I was in school) is a very effective tool.
When I was in High School, my Math class put the tables/desks in groups of 6. 2 slow kids, two average kids, and two above average kids. The better kids job was to speed up the slow kids. It worked. Yes I was one of the above average, so I learned to bring the slow kids up to speed as fast as they could. We all had good grades at the end of the year.
Burner – Yes that will work to a point, but there are limits. What they are trying today is mainstream challenged kids who really need to be in a separate class or school.