You are right. I was crossthreading what you said here with what others have said.
I was backtracking in the discussion, along the decision timeline, and was trying to say that in a free republic that freedom of religion and freedom of speech are some of the most important principles we must support.
One of the reasons I support No Child Left Behind, despite the Kennedy bloating of funding necessary to get it passed after we lost control of the Senate, is because if teachers have to spend time teaching to the test they have less time to expound on their Marxism and anti-American and anti-religious beliefs.
The brainwashing many of our teachers do in the public schools does not make it easy to support freedom of scientific inquiry and learning in the schools, as yes, it can be subverted to advance godless thinking. But without freedom of information, where would we be?
And without the right to bear arms we would have lost this battle long ago, so to me that freedom is just about our most important one.
One of the reasons I support NCLB is that it puts failing schools on notice. Any school (regardless of size or geographical location) shown to be failing will lose it's funding if it fails to improve it's teaching environment after a determined time period set in the NCLB Act.
If Joe Student wants to learn how to be a good little Marxist, he should learn on his own time, and not my dime.
Lastly. It's not fair to the taxpayers of a school district to continue to dole out money to a failing school in the school district.