Posted on 09/17/2007 8:58:02 AM PDT by colorcountry
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- A conservative think tank is distributing a lengthy essay on the history of education in Utah that implies that if Mormons don't vote in favor of the state's school voucher law that they could face cultural extinction.
The Mormon-oriented Sutherland Institute bought advertisements in Utah's two largest newspapers to publish its essay, which says public schools were introduced in Utah by federal officials who wanted to end The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' control of the state.
"The object was to provide a broader context, not just for the voucher debate but for education reform policy debates across the spectrum," Mero says. "The paper was written with the hopes that we can lessen the contentiousness."
Utah passed the nation's broadest private school voucher program, giving parents $500 to $3,000 per child to attend private school. Voters will decide whether to keep the program Nov. 6.
Voucher opponents say they are appalled by some of the essay's statements, including author Paul Mero's assertion that public schools historically have been part of the federal government's campaign of "cultural cleansing" of minority groups.
Mero stands behind the statements and says it applies to Mormons, American Indians and other minority groups. "I've just written what the history is," he says. "I'm not making stuff up." Voucher advocacy group Parents for Choice in Education would not comment on the essay. The unofficial blog of Senate Republicans, www.senatesite.com, features the essay on its site and calls it a "striking analysis ... offering historic context for the voucher discussion."
Senate Republicans voted in favor of the voucher law and working to rally support for it before the November referendum.
Opponents of vouchers say the essay is an attempt to convince Mormon voters that their forebears would want them to join the voucher cause.
"No honest person who has studied the historical record of Utahns prior to statehood could conclude anything other than that they would have embraced what we now call vouchers," the essay says. "I shook my head when I read it," said Rep. Sheryl Allen, R-Bountiful, who is Mormon and a voucher opponent. Allen said that if Mero's argument is that because 19th-century Mormons relied on private schools, state government should provide vouchers today, "Then we should also go back to polygamy, too."
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints stopped sanctioning polygamy in 1890 as a condition of statehood. Harvey Kantor, chairman of the University of Utah's Department of Education, Culture and Society, says it is dangerous to try to compare historically distant societies. "He's trying to apply the practices of a 19th-century society to the concerns we have today. We are talking about two very different societies," Kantor says. "The only people that would make sense to would be fundamentalist Mormons."
Fundamentalist Mormons continue to practice polygamy, believing mainstream Mormons betrayed their faith by abandoning the practice because of pressure from federal authorities. "It was not meant to flush out the good Mormons and call them to the cause," Mero said. He says it was intended to say that those familiar with state history shouldn't fear vouchers.
Kim Burningham, a voucher opponent and chairman of the Utah Board of Education, worries the essay will increase religious contention in the state. "If there's anything Utah doesn't need in the 21st century, it's more divisiveness between Mormons and non-Mormons," Burningham said. "Our current (public education) system provides an excellent compromise - seminary . . . that allows the LDS faithful to obtain daily religious instruction."
Voucher opponent Rep. Carol Spackman Moss, D-Holladay, says the Sutherland essay is deplorable. "It was almost sacrilegious. He's implying that somehow the church is approving of vouchers because of how they conducted school in the early days. He is trying to connect it to the Mormon religion," she said.
Church spokesman Mark N. Tuttle issued a two-sentence response to the essay, saying the church hasn't taken a position on school vouchers.
Frederick Buchanan, a retired University of Utah professor who has written extensively on the history of Utah education, questions the idea that the public school system threatens Mormon culture in Utah. "That's nonsense. The public school system reinforces the LDS values at every turn," he said.
That's one reason, Buchanan says, there are so few Mormon parochial schools. The Catholic school system is the largest private school system in Utah.
When the federal government pushed Utah to establish public schools to replace the Mormon church-controlled system, he says, Mormon leaders decided "We'll make them our schools."
Ah! The daily I hate Mormons thread. What WOULD we talk about if not for this?
It’s not just Mormons who should feel this way. Christianity is threatened by the official government reeducation camps.
You’re right.
I was looking at it as an excellent example of how to flee the disgusting public schools system, myself.
I (and my company) pay north of a hundred thousand a year in property taxes and have never expose a child to public school; nor would I voluntarily.
I saw this as a conservative/education/voucher thread.
It just so happens that my local news is from Utah, which often focuses on the predominant religion of the area. It seems you have a problem with that.
How did you arrive at that conclusion?
I didn't read it that way........
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1896642/posts
While this admittedly begins in Canada note the cultural trend that has taken over about unwritten behavior in society. Note how many Freepers have been completely absorbed by the “don’t criticize anything gay” message that’s been beaten in by the public schools.
After that go look for a thread on recycling and see how many people here treat it like something sacred — a civic duty instead of the leftist agenda item that it is.
Let’s wait and see, shall we?
Actually, they probably are right about that. The Catholics said the same thing, that the government schools were being used to "Protestantise" their children, which is why there was a boom in sectarian schools starting later in the 19th century. Indeed, the public schools were a way to assimilate the huge scads of Irish, Italians, and other (largely Catholic) immigrants who came to our shores between 1850-1920.
Interesting note - the rubbish about separation of church and state as it applies to the schools started as an effort to hinder the rise of the Catholic school movement.
The author of the essay is right. The entire history of government schooling is one of using compulsory “public education” to promote the worldview of whatever group happened to be in control. Initially, the public schools were first sold and then used as a way of “Protestantizing” Catholic children, which is why a Catholic school system was created so rapidly in the 19th Century. Following 1865, the Peabody Foundation and Jabez Curry, known as the “Horace Mann of the South” forced the New England model of government schools on the South for the purpose of “reeducating” the next generation of Southerners into a proper understanding of the Constitution and the union. Our so-called “public school educators” have always had a messianic obsession about remaking society through schooling - creating a utopia that just happens to resemble their own views. Just take a look at the NEA’s most recent resolutions....Government schools are necessary as a mechanism of control for the liberal elites who control the system, but they are unnecessary for education. In fact, they are an impediment to education. Except, of course, for all of the government schools that are different - which would be any government school someone on FR sends his children to attend or works in.
“Voucher opponents say they are appalled by some of the essay’s statements, including author Paul Mero’s assertion that public schools historically have been part of the federal government’s campaign of “cultural cleansing” of minority groups.”
I support vouchers but that statement is just plain hogwash.
Personally I believe our spublic edumacation school system is being used to liberalize our children. They are a seed-bed of atheistic, liberal, keep-the-masses-stupid, communist re-education camps, that have been set-up to benefit the Teacher’s Union and not the students. JMHO
I would agree, which is why, when my kids come along, they will be home-schooled. My soon-to-be-wife and I will be jointly giving them an education in everything that the dumbed-down-homosexual-loving-left-wing-drivel-spewing-condoms-on-bananas PC crowd doesn’t want them to learn: the classics, Western literature, classical liberal and classical republican political philosophy, etc. etc.
My kids were taught in the public education system. It was almost a full time job re-educating them each evening when they got home.
Since that time, they’ve done well with life and higher-education in general. We taught them to see through the bull-crap agenda that permeates everything from the mass media through the education system.
Congratulations on the decision to be responsible in raising your children with brains and values!
If households spend a significant amount of time teaching family values to their children, the secularizing effects of the public indoctrination program would be much less transformative. Alas, the more parents try to get into educating their children in family values, the more the society promotes crap like soft porn and self-indulgence, corroding even the values the family tries to teach at home. Frankly, Mormons have a stronger family institution and thus have been less effected by the secularization, but they have not been totally immune.
Being active and involved with your children is the best tool against brain-washing there is.
(New tagline)
Ping for later
I agree that the author is probably correct. The problem I see, however, is that most parents/voters don’t consider this an issue (I haven’t seen or heard much chatter about vouchers as a way to preserve religion). He would have been better to have focused on how vouchers would allow preservation of values by using Utah and National history (and current events) on values manipulation. Ultimately, I think his article will not help - it diverts attention to a perceived “non issue” instead of staying focused on parents rather than government choosing you child’s eduction.
Vouchers, Vows, and Vexations - It runs about 44 pages.
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