'Sectarian' curriculum must go, says N. Mex. official

One News Now ^ | 3/7/2009 | Pete Chagnon

[GonzoII]

A public-funded home school in New Mexico is being forced to drop its curriculum because the education secretary says it is filled with "sectarian doctrine."

[GonzoII]

The state will have no equals.

[GonzoII]

NM Ping.

[greyfoxx39]

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[Eva]

That’s what you can expect when you take government money.

When my daughter was in kindergarten in NJ, the school district refused all state and federal money because they didn’t want to be subject to the dictates that came with the money. Our property taxes were astronomical, but the education was superior.

We were paying $3,300 a year on a $33,000 home.

[GonzoII]

"That’s what you can expect when you take government money."

That's right.

I think if any group is going to take government money they better be ready to give it up if keeping it means violating serious principles later on.

[nathanbedford]

Ever since the Supreme Court ruling in 1962 prohibiting prayer in the public schools, the justification for denying religious expression in the school system was that children of a different faith, or of no faith, would suffer by the exposure. But here, by definition, all the children are of the same faith and clearly their parents support the religious influence in the school and specifically the religious influence in these textbooks.

So there is no collateral harm to other children.

This intrusion by the state is presumably based on the theory that since the state is funding the school, the establishment clause prohibits the use of taxpayer funds because religion is encouraged. I suppose that means that some taxpayers might object because they are of a different faith, or because they are atheists, to the use of their funds to promote religion, or a different religion. I note Parenthetically that argument has not been found to be persuasive by Barak Obama on the issue of abortion.

I note also that the argument runs counter to a constitutionally recognized exception to establishment restrictions called "the child benefit theory" which says that taxpayer dollars which benefited children, albeit in a religious context, are nevertheless constitutional.

The perniciousness of a doctrine which says that state control of thought and expression should follow state allocation of money is obvious. As Obama moves America closer to autocracy, the prospect becomes frightening.

[GonzoII]

"Ever since the Supreme Court ruling in 1962 prohibiting prayer in the public schools"

And now here we are today in this pagan mess. Where did the Founding Fathers ever intend to remove prayer from public schools?

[nathanbedford]

Of course nothing was more foreign to the founders' contemplation.

[nothingnew]

Where did the Founding Fathers ever intend to remove prayer from public schools?

FMCDH(BITS)

[Eva]

What kind of home school program accepts government money, anyway? Isn’t that kind of counter intuitive?

[Myrddin]

This intrusion by the state is presumably based on the theory that since the state is funding the school, the establishment clause prohibits the use of taxpayer funds because religion is encouraged. I suppose that means that some taxpayers might object because they are of a different faith, or because they are atheists, to the use of their funds to promote religion, or a different religion. I note Parenthetically that argument has not been found to be persuasive by Barak Obama on the issue of abortion.

Public schools generally have a mix of religions in a given classroom. If the establishment clause prohibits any religious content in the classroom, then public funding of schools should be abolished. There is no way to satisfy the requirement in a room full of persons of various religious backgrounds (including the secular humanist position of many schools). Private schools with private funding are free to control admissions policies, academic content and religious content. Get the state out of the classroom.

[Clintonfatigued]

Homeschooling ping