Well I think this
Well I think this headline, Death Sentence for Private and Home Education, Courtesy of Supreme Court, is just a bit over the top.
Let’s try an experiment. I’ve never fisked in public before- please be gentle.
The Supreme Court’s recent 5-4 decision allowing the constitutionality of financial aid to parents which they may use at religious or private schools, including virtual academy (computer-assisted-instruction) charter schools available to home schoolers, will result in the deliberate dumbing down of all education.
I think “will result” is a bit strong. HSers are a fiercely independent lot; there just aren’t that many who would be willing to accept the strings that come with government money.
Now, private schools, willing to go the “voucher” route in order to get the money to stay in business, will have the opportunity to be equally dumbed down, denied a liberal arts curriculum, and stripped of all sound moral education. I can already hear the howling from voucher-supporting conservatives the first time the heavy hand of the federal government lands on a private school denying it the right to determine “what is right and what is wrong” in its curriculum, hiring practices, recital of the Pledge of Allegiance, The Lord’s Prayer, etc. Those private schools which courageously, for reasons of conscience, resist vouchers will eventually be forced out of business due to their inability to remain competitive.
There are two assumptions here that I think don’t hold up. One- that private schools that accept vouvhers will be held to some kind of accountability standards. That is a “political” decision that has not yet been made. I have no doubt that opponents to vouchers will attempt to have these requirements imposed on the schools; it is up to voucher supporters to work in opposition to this. Two- the market will be unwilling/unable to support private schools that don’t accept vouchers in order to remain “free”. I think the fact that there are still private schools (paid for by parents with after-tax dollars) indicates that there is a market for religious schools that aren’t “dumbed down”.
Is school choice a plot to implement the socialist, corporate fascist, workforce training agenda for the global planned economy? You ‘betcha.
This one is laughable. The left-leaning NEA would have to be the slickest, most organized, and far-seeing organization in the history of the labor movement to pull off such a great acting job. No, the unions are opposed to school choice (and homeschooling) because it threatens their money and their power base.
This decision will succeed in carrying out the long-standing leftist/internationalist goal of total control of all education (public and private) through the dollar.
There’s that pesky word “will” again.
Why don’t more people understand that government control of private and home school education is exactly what is going to happen? And why have religious organizations, especially those affiliated with the Catholic Church, supported school choice proposals when they have so much to loose [sic] once the government controls are implemented?
People understand perfectly well what is at stake. It is alarmist, at best, to assume that choice advocates are going to retire from the battlefield and grasp defeat from the jaws of victory. Lisa Snell has done an excellent job summarizing this here.
Elected officials and others in supervisory positions, including public school superintendents who complain about government regulations, should, when the government honey pot is passed around the board table, just say “NO”. That is the only way to avoid the regulations imposed rightfully in the name of “accountability,” and to remain a truly free agent.
That is one (mostly) sure way. Another way is to win in the political arena.
Do the five justices who ruled favoring school choice proposals live in such a dream world that they believe the government will require less regulation of the private and home schools than it requires of the public schools?
I doubt that the justices considered homeschooling but I’ll put homeschoolers grass-roots political skills up against any organization.
The NAEP is the tool for measuring accountability to politically-correct government viewpoints (60 percent of the test items measure political correctness and school-to-work readiness). The NAEP, which President Bush mandated be administered in all schools, will determine not only curriculum, but compliance with accountability standards and therefore will be essential in the determination of which private schools and home schoolers will receive vouchers. That is the reason this decision will do away with private and home schooling education as they are presently constituted.
The NAEP is not mandated for homeschoolers. If I recall correctly, language was inserted into the NCLBA specifically exempting homeschoolers from the federally-mandated accountability tests.
Ms. Iserbyt is convinced that this is all part of one big conspiracy dating back 75 years, and that Marx and Gorbachev will take over our private schools and homeschools if school choice is enacted. I don’t know- maybe the Carnegie Foundation has had some grand plan to take over the world. Let’s fight that battle when (and if) it arrives. For now, let’s drain the swamp of the public school system and allow parents to get their kids out ASAP.