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Facts are neutral things. If the schools just taught facts, there could be no objection. But not only do the schools teach opinion and propaganda disgused as fact, they do so at the expense of worthwhile subjects entirely!

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It is impossible to educate a child on "facts" alone.

How would they learn to read? What reading materials would solely "facts" based?

In history and civics it is impossible to give equal attention to all the history of every group in humankind. In the finite time allowed choices would need to be made and those choices are not politically, culturally, or religiously neutral.

Whether girls and boys are educated together, the holidays celebrated, the foods offered, the dress worn, the music chosen,,,,,all of these things are politically, culturally, and religiously loaded with profound non-neutral lessons for all the children in the school.

I didn't say that the environment could be kept values-free. Nor do I think it SHOULD be; the cure would be worse than the illness.

I simply meant that the educational process should be values-neutral, and it can be so if it sticks with facts, not conjecture.

Abraham Lincoln was elected to the presidency in 1860. That is a fact (and let's not quibble over the fact that the election actually took place in 1859). As to whether Abraham Lincoln was a good president or not, there is considerable disagreement on that even here on FR. And that could make for an interesting debate in the academic setting. But the unalterable FACT is that Lincoln was elected.

Waves of immigrants came to this country over the years: the Irish, the Italians, Germans, Chinese, Hmong, Vietnamese, Hispanics, etc.. The numbers of immigrants can be reported without drawing any conclusions about their impact on our economy or our cultural values.

As to reading, I don't know that Alice in Wonderland or Treasure Island or Anne Frank's diary are overtly political. Yes, they can be taken that way if you want to allegorize them, but they can also teach reading without introducing a lot of values-laden baggage into the mix.

I think it's too easy to just forsake value-neutral education as an impossible task. Certainly, withdrawing your children from the public schools is an excellent idea. But at least in theory, I think tighter regulation could trim back some of the weeds in our kinder gartens.

[It is impossible to educate a child on "facts" alone. ... In history and civics it is impossible to give equal attention to all the history of every group in humankind. In the finite time allowed choices would need to be made and those choices are not politically, culturally, or religiously neutral.]

The selection of WHICH facts to teach goes along with this. If a child graduates high school having spent his time in history class on five minutes on Benjamin Franklin, five hours on McCarthyism and five weeks of resolution conflict, bullying issues, sexual identity awareness and social responsibility, then that student has been cheated out of a proper education.