True Fanaticism: Voucher Opponents

BreakPoint ^ | 10 June 03 | Chuck Colson

[Mr. Silverback]

Last June, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of Cleveland's school voucher program. The vouchers provided poor children in failing public schools with the means to pay for private or parochial schools.

Chief Justice Rehnquist rejected the idea that the program constituted an establishment of religion. He described it as part of an "multifaceted undertaking . . . to provide educational opportunities to the children of a failed school district."

Opponents of the program vowed to keep fighting, and they've made good on their promise -- even if it means turning poor children into permanent second-class citizens.

After their defeat in the Supreme Court, voucher opponents, like Americans United for Separation of Church and State, tried a new tactic: Instead of alleging that the programs violate the U.S. Constitution, they're challenging them on state constitutional grounds.

This is happening, for example, in Colorado, the first state to enact a voucher program following the Supreme Court's decision. The Colorado program allows parents to sign what it calls "opportunity contracts" that provide tuition to private schools that agree to take the children.

The "opportunity contracts" are only available for students in districts where at least eight schools have received an "unsatisfactory" or a "low" rating from the state. In other words, it's designed to give motivated parents and kids an alternative when public schools are proven to be substandard.

As expected, voucher opponents filed suit in a Colorado state court to block the program that doesn't even begin until 2004. They alleged that the program violates Colorado's constitution and "illegally enriches church-run schools."

While some of the opponents are unions seeking to protect their members' jobs, much of the opposition can only be characterized as militantly secularist. For groups like Americans United, the issue is "the proper relationship between religion and government in America." Programs like Colorado's aren't about expanding opportunity for the poor, they say, but for "[subsidizing] religious indoctrination," as one plaintiff put it.

There's a word for what we're seeing in Colorado: fanaticism. Opponents of the program agree that the public schools in the affected districts are failing. And they know that the only real-world alternatives to those failing schools are vouchers. But they're willing to sacrifice poor children's futures to avoid even a hint of possible religious influence in American public life.

We see the same indifference to the fate of those in need in the opposition to every cooperative endeavor between government and religious groups, like Prison Fellowship's InnerChange Freedom Initiative. The choice isn't between help in a faith-based setting and a completely secular one. It's between help and no help at all.

In the continuing debate over vouchers and other faith-based initiatives Christians must point out what's really at stake here isn't philosophical abstractions, but the lives of real people. And we must point out that Christians aren't the fanatics here, as we're so often called. The true fanatics are those who so rabidly oppose even the briefest exposure to religion that they'll willingly condemn children to bleak futures as an uneducated underclass.

[Mr. Silverback]

Colson is dead on here. The actions of the voucher opponents have often struck me as not just racist in result (the minority kids stay impoverished and stupid, perfect socialist voters) but similar to the most virulent racism in action. Imagine if someone had brought George Wallace proof in 1963 that white kids would learn more in integrated schools. Would that have gotten him out of the schoolhouse door? No, because he was a racist first. The panic that the Americans United crowd exhibits reminds me very much of the sort of folks who were sure that "race mixing" in everyday life would bring down our Republic.

[Mr. Silverback]

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[f.Christian]

Public schools ... inso far as evolution (( bolshevik monopoly )) is concerned --- reminds me of abortion clinics (( nkorea -- china they eat them )) !

[Lijahsbubbe]

I am against school vouchers. Government schools should be taken back by the taxpayers. I do not believe infiltrating the private schools will be a solution, only a means for more government control.

Flame away!

[cksharks]

Like other orfices everyone has one!

[Blood of Tyrants]

Fanatic is the only way to describe ANY liberal on ANY policy.

The liberals oppose:

1. the law against partial birth abortion while the vast majority of people support it.

2. school voucher programs while the vast majority of people support it.

3. tax cuts while the vast majority of people support them.

4. the liberation of Iraq while the vast majority of people support it.

5. smaller, less intrusive government while the vast majority of people support it.

6. parental consent laws regarding abortion while the vast majority of people support them.

7. an armed public despite the fact that 38 states have shall issue CW permits.

8. a strong military dispite the fact that perceived weakness is the major cause of attack by terrorists and other nations.

Feel free to add your own.

[Blood of Tyrants]

It is a start.

[Tacis]

Vouchers can not work on a larger scale. They are, in effect, a governmental subsidy for a competitor the government already funds. Just like the Pell Grants don't do much for college education except raise the cost of tuition for all by about the amount of the Pell Grant, school vouchers will raise the cost of school for all.

The dream of religious fanatics has always been the European model where public money funds religious education. That might work there but not here. The logical conclusion of vouchers is two educational systems, both funded by the property tax base.

The secret to the repair of the current public school system is getting the unions and social tinkerers out of it. Both poisons will eventually get into the vouchered system. In fact, where the state takes over the cost of vouchers, especially in states owned by the unions,` union membership will be mandatory for schools receiving voucher money and we'll be back where we were.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

No flames here buddy. Vouchers are trojan horses. Who knows what kind of strings the feds will attach to them? Then in the end low-income and minority kids will still be dumbed-down.

Better to just dismantle the education system and let people pay out of pocket via competition in the free market.

[CurlyDave]

I am against school vouchers. Government schools should be taken back by the taxpayers. I do not believe infiltrating the private schools will be a solution, only a means for more government control.

At best, school vouchers are a short-term solution. As you say, they will ultimately bring government control and we will be right back where we are today. Although, the Catholic Church may be able to stand up against the government.

The other problem with all of the voucher systems so far is that they are very limited. Only parents with children in "failling schools" can get vouchers. This leaves out suburban middle class parents who disagree with the socialist/sexual deviant indoctrination in government schools.

These people are already taxed to support schools & policies where they have a fundamental disagreement and yet can not get any credit if they pay for private schooling for their kids, or if they homeschool.

[whereasandsoforth]

You have a point, but in the meantime let's do what is best for education and the country. Taking back the public school system will take a long time.

[Lijahsbubbe]

This leaves out suburban middle class parents who disagree with the socialist/sexual deviant indoctrination in government schools.

This is just one of many points to consider. Once again, the middle class would foot the bill and be denied the same services.

It is not impossible to send your child to a parochial or private school if you are low income. The schools are very willing to work with you on payments, and offer assistance.

I personally know a single mother with a black daughter who may possibly be the next valedictorian in her parochial school. She sacrificed a lot to send her there, with no tuition assistance.

[grapeape]

As a person who had to sit through those useless socialist classes I would like to come out in support of vouchers for the sole fact that I want the teachers and administrators FIRED!!!! [Yes I do yell that] I can't even begin to tell you how much I hate these people and I want the monster that they have created slowly stripped away for them piece by piece. I want it to happen every year so they slowly rot until they all become the crazy aunt [cat lady at the end of the street with all trash in their yard] that no one listens to. I want them slowly stripped of all power and for that to sink into thier heads and slowly drive them mad so they are the village idiots that talk to invisible socialist comrads that aren't there any more. This is the only justic I see fit for the white liberals who are trying to renslave a perfectly good group of people just because they feel like it.

[Osage Orange]

You wrote:

"This is the only justic I see fit for the white liberals who are trying to renslave a perfectly good group of people just because they feel like it."

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Okay......but, what about the black,brown,red, & limegreen liberals?

I mean..hey, don'tcha think " And justice for all..." should apply here?

FRegards,

[eBelasco]

Better to just dismantle the education system and let people pay out of pocket via competition in the free market.

I'm 100% with you on this, especially as that will bust up the teachers' unions too, although it gets me in lots of trouble here.

[grapeape]

Of course, I just focus on white liberals because those are the ones who have screwed me so hard. They did it for no reason while pretending to be so loving and caring.

[Mr. Silverback]

I disagree, but I only flame that small minority of Freepers who are schmucks. We agree on the most important thing, which is that more money or minor "reforms" will not fix the government schools.

[Mr. Silverback]

The dream of religious fanatics has always been the European model where public money funds religious education. That might work there but not here. The logical conclusion of vouchers is two educational systems, both funded by the property tax base.

I am a voucher proponent and a 100% hardcore Jesus Freak (read: "religious fanatic") and I would strongly oppose direct funding of religious schools with tax dollars. The reason vouchers are different is because the parent chooses where the money goes. If I had wanted to, I could be using my GI Bill money toward a divinity degree right know. It's the same principle.