The spread of vouchers in recent years is alarming. Anywhere from 15-20 states have passed legislation to allow children to use public funds to attend religious schools. In two states that passed voucher laws–North Carolina and Louisiana–the state courts have blocked the diversion of public funds to religious schools (in North Carolina, at least temporarily).
Note that vouchers have never been approved by popular vote.
But what happens in those voucher schools? This article reviews what is taught in the fundamentalist church schools that use the most popular brand of Christian textbooks.
Of course, they learn that God created the world, just as the Bible says. They learn traditional math, which apparently has Biblical sanction. They teach children that gun control is intolerable. They teach that God approves of capital punishment and abhors homosexuality.
Well, you get the drift. Modern science, modern math, anything that tolerates the modern world is not acceptable.
And that’s what you call preparing our children for the 21st century these days.
STEM, in that world, is part of a flower, nothing more.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Vouchers are a bad idea.
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Joe,
Dr. Ravitch’s link is to PAGE 2 of the article.
I clicked back Page 1, and found this about the origin’s of the Horton’s Beka book:
http://www.alternet.org/education/7-most-absurd-things-americas-kids-are-learning-thanks-conservative-gutting-public
————————
“Founded by Arlin and Rebekah (Beka) Horton in 1972, A Beka Book provides ‘excellence in education from a Christian perspective.’ Since 1977, A Beka Book has operated out of the unaccredited Arlin-founded Pensacola Christian College (PCC) in Florida. Among other rules, PCC has a zero tolerance policy for ‘optical intercourse’ or staring too intently into the eyes of a member of the opposite sex (also known as ‘making eye babies’).”
——————————————
Huh ????!!!
“… a zero tolerance for ‘optical intercourse’… ‘also known as making eye babies (making babies with one’s eyes) ‘… ”
Are these people serious? Is this an ONION parody or something?
Unfortunately, it’s not.
So let me get this straight regarding the people and organization that create, write, and provide textbooks (science, soc. studies, history, math, etc.) to voucher-supported “Christian” schools in Florida and elsewhere?
… that they’re all crazy as a soup sandwich?
Jack
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Beautiful letter mom and am moved by your inspiring story; however google TED Mitchell. He’s next in the appointments to DOE, pretty much Arne on steroids. So….Obama is probably chuckling at your letter, not reflecting on it.
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Ah, but when one looks only inward, there is neither the need to acknowledge the greater outer world that exists nor to reflect on it, nor adjust or adapt to it. It makes things so much simpler – unless you are part of that greater world.
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“An Ignorant Public Is the Real Kind of Security Our Govt. Is After: Keeping the public in the dark is the name of the game.”
http://www.alternet.org/chomsky-staggering-differences-between-how-people-and-powerful-define-security?paging=off¤t_page=1#bookmark
Nothing like a hostile take-over of education so they can start mass producing ignoramuses on a grand scale beginning in the early years.
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Diane,
I typically really like your posts. I don’t agree with the voucher system at all. But I do have to stand up and protest your bashing of some of the teaching that occurs in even mainstream religious based schools. Truth is, Catholic schools do an EXCELLENT job of preparing students for 4 year colleges. In fact, a review of every catholic school in our area (50 mile radius) had a 98% or higher rate of acceptance to 4 year schools. This blows public schools out of the water. These students are not backward, gun toting, hate spewing students. Many are not even Catholic, but parents are looking for some sort of morality which is sadly missing in today’s society. Your comment that these schools do not approve of gun control, and engage in homosexuality bashing has nothing to do with academics, which is what schools are suppose to support. By this logic, then the public schools should be teaching gun control is right and homosexuality is right. Again, not an academic subject so why is it right for your beliefs in a public school, but not right in a religious school? Catholic schools doing an excellent job with the resources they have and to suggest that they are not advancing STEM education is likewise a fallacy just because they teach creationism. One does not equate another. The closest Catholic HS in our area has an amazing lab and science program and partners with Syracuse University and Lemoyne College to further enhance their student’s learning. So please do not lump fundamentalist schools into the same category as the more mainstream Catholic schools. I do not support the use of public funds for students to attend religious schools or charter schools, but, I assure you, in most cases, Catholic schools are excelling where charter schools are failing miserably. Instilling a sense of self control is a strength that Catholic schools are freer to engage in without the fear of the left getting into an uproar. My children all attend public schools with pride. But, I have great friends who have children attending Catholic schools who can’t say enough positive things about them and the education they are receiving compared to their public school counterparts. Play fair is all I ask.
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Curkgang, I understand that you want vouchers for Catholic schools but once there are vouchers, you can’t designate them for one religion only. They will be for all religions. I admire Catholic schools, and I am very disappointed that Catholic philanthropists and Catholic families do not support Catholic schools and keep them alive. They should.
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You have misread what Curkgang said. She is NOT advocating for vouchers for Catholic schools. She is merely critiquing your lumping together of fundamentalist schools with traditional Catholic education. Some religiously sponsored schools are fundamentalist, a-scientific, and teach bigotry under the cloak of religion. Some others are not that way, and may have the added advantage of teaching a responsible moral approach to life.
Your failure to make that distinction is what Curkgang is protesting.
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And they should support the flux of Roman Catholic immigrants coming in from Mexico for schooling.
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dianeravitch: rest assured that many of us do not misconstrue your remarks.
Your posting was on vouchers, you made a point about vouchers.
Period.
😎
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Yes!
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This is a misunderstanding of the meaning of “fundamentalist church schools.” American fundamentalist church schools are the educational institutions of the radical religious right, which is primarily comprised of various Protestant sects. Mainstream Protestant and Catholic schools are not fundamentalist, anti-science or anti-intellectual –and neither were mentioned by Diane or by the author in the article.
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The evangelical/fundamentalist churches I attended from age 12-22 proclaimed that they were not Protestant. They wanted no affiliation with Catholicism or Protestant Reformation churches. They were very adamant that they are the one true church. They pass tracts out a doors, in restaurants, etc. They say theirs is the only true religion and that it is shown through “the trail of the blood” with Christ-types in the Old Testament and following Christ from the foot of the cross into the present. They send their kids to Bible Colleges such as Bob Jones University. Check them out.
In any cases vouchers should not be given for any religious groups. Not using tax money.
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Thanks for the insights, Deb!
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I went to those churches a long time but I simply didn’t buy into their narrow views. My parents didn’t go to that church. I went because I could walk from my house. But I always felt uncomfortable with their absolute ideas. I stopped that church long ago. However I know what they preach and that there are many such congregations, esp in the south and in rural areas.
For this reason it is necessary to realize that to many of these people, mainline Protestant and Catholic churches aren’t in their field of vision.
Many just do not know what is inside the walls. This is nothing new.
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Catholic schools may be OK on evolution, but they are not OK on women’s rights of conscience and religious freedom with regard to contraception and abortion. — Edd Doerr (arlinc.org)
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Edd,
None of those topics have a place in any school. That was my point. You can’t have an under riding political agenda in the academic setting. Those topics belong in the homes. I vehemently disagree with abortion as a woman. I don’t want my children ever to hear about abortion in terms of right OR wrong. It’s not a topic that should ever be in the schools. Same with gun control and the death penalty. So if you are making a judgement on those criteria who needs to look at academics at all? Let’s just be sure our personal agendas are being taught and THEN determine if the kids are actually learning.
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http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2014/03/08/third-graders-using-vouchers-need-not-pass-reading-test.html
People are pretty worked up over this in Ohio:
“Third-graders in traditional public schools and charter schools will be held back if they can’t pass a state reading test, but those who receive taxpayer-funded vouchers to attend private schools will not be.
They are exempt from Ohio’s third-grade reading guarantee.
But as a group, those voucher students performed worse on the reading test than students in the state’s school districts did.”
Here’s the kicker:
“Dan Dodd, executive director of the Ohio Association of Independent Schools, said that omitting voucher students was a statement that lawmakers trust private schools’ judgment.
“Many private schools feel that people pay or choose a private-school education because they rely on the professional expertise of the administrators,” Dodd said. “So to rely on a test, I suppose you could view it as ironic, but that’s not really how independent schools choose to measure their performance.”
They especially don’t want to make decisions based on a test “forced on them by the state,” Dodd said.”
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The casual offhand hypocrisy of those pursuing $tudent $ucce$$ is nauseating. One standard for mine, another for thine. Perhaps it is only matched by their smug sense of superiority.
This is the answer to what Dee Dee wrote recently—
“Have they no shame?????”
😎
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Yes, we in Ohio are upset about this. It is ridiculous, esp knowing that they set cut scores PLANNING for the number who will FAIL.
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I think vouchers for religious schools always follow charters in states run by ed reformers because (affordable) private schools then have to compete with publicly-funded charters, and affordable private schools are often subsidized by churches or religious groups (which is why they’re affordable).
There are schools that would have closed in Toledo but for the state stepping in and subsidizing them:
“It’s part of the “choice” political alliance. Ed reformers need religious schools to push “choice” through state legislatures. Catholic schools in Ohio were one of the first “choice “lobbying groups. Reformers need that political clout in states like mine, so they make a deal:
“Most vouchers go to Toledo’s Catholic schools. Christopher Knight, Catholic Diocese of Toledo schools superintendent, said they have become a major enrollment component for those in central Toledo, with the biggest recipients Central Catholic High School, Gesu Elementary, and two Central City Ministries of Toledo schools — Rosary Cathedral and Queen of Apostles. The program has largely kept Rosary Cathedral School afloat, with about 75 percent of its students on EdChoice scholarships.
The program redirects funds targeted for public school districts to private schools — up to $4,250 for elementary students and $5,000 for high schoolers. That meant more than $8 million shifted from TPS toward mostly Catholic schools. Mr. Knight said that although the program has helped stabilize some Catholic schools’ budgets, the diocese advocates for vouchers because of benefits to parents.”
I think we’re seeing this political alliance in action in NY, where vouchers were introduced. It’s just a matter of time before “choice” includes private schools.
I think Democrats who are ed reformers should just drop the pretense and support vouchers, too. They’ve adopted the entire Republican agenda regarding public schools. It’s sort of silly to draw this one weak and rapidly vanishing line. My sense is it’s purely political anyway.
Read more at http://www.toledoblade.com/Education/2012/06/18/Demand-for-vouchers-declines-in-TPS-district-reversing-trend.html#FsfkgPKdXQCS4241.99
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I have to say, as an educator who agrees with most of what Diane has to say, this post is incredibly offensive to me. I think it is narrow minded, and frankly a little ignorant to assume to that all Christian schools are teaching “that gun control is intolerable. They teach that God approves of capital punishment and abhors homosexuality.” To me this sounds like a complete judgement of Christianity from an outsiders point of view. Of course, I’m sure, there are some schools who teach these things, but this is an unfair generalization of Christianity and Christian schools. I could go on and on to defend my faith, but I just felt a need to state my disappointment that Diane, who I have come to respect, would post something so incredibly biased and unfounded.
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Tiffany, if you look at what Diane posted, she said nothing of the sort. She provided a link to an article that discusses the kids of materials used in many Christian schools of the evangelical/fundamentalist variety. If you are not teaching at those schools. It would have no application to you and give no reason for you to be offended.
I attended a fundamentalist church from age 12 – 22. These ideas ARE preached at many churches that tell their teens not to attend “secular” universities or take sociology classes. Their minds, we were warned, would be drawn away from their truth, which is their rendition of the Bible via their Cliff Notes edition. They taught us that no one was truly a Christian except fundamentalists … Not Methodists, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Epscopaluans, American Baptists, or Catholics. Never mind any other religion. They told us that our church was from THE group of people who were at the foot of the cross with Mary and Jesus. They told us we were never part of the Protestant Reformation be cause we existed outside of all that for all these 2000+ years. They denied my membership transfer to a protestant church, only saying they would pray for me for leaving their fold. ETC.
I do NOT want public funding to go to this authoritarian type of education. If they want to teach this to their kids, fine. But vouchers should not be used to spread hatred and derision.
If your school doesn’t, fine. But it shouldn’t get tax dollars in any case.
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I must say, when I was in junior high and high school in the 1960s-70s, the voucher curriculum described in the link was my church youth group and Sunday School curriculum. We were told to be aware that once we took a college class in sociology, we would be forever changed because we would question our religious upbringing. We were told to only go to Bible College.
I went to a teachers’ college not affiliated with any church. I guess I was corrupted by not following my Sunday School teacher’s directions. While I kept my morality intact, I was definitely unusual among fellow students. I didn’t realize why at the time.
Reading this curriculum today, I am amazed that we were given these same absolutes in the 1960s as these schools continue to deliver today. I just didn’t realize as a student just exactly how heavy handed these 7 opinions were and how they are obviously “informing” the decisions of people who are highly involved in making political band educational decisions today. Even Pat Robertson has said that some are making fools of themselves, and he has made some really bizarre comments in the past.
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And as distasteful as that all sounds, the bottom line is the separation of church and state.
Being a non-profit (as a church and church schools, are, I think) is one thing, but actually redirecting tax money to the efforts of the church or church school is quite another.
It’s really not a complex conundrum. I find it a waste of legislative energy to be focusing on this. Yet another bad side effect of ALEC canned laws making their way into an agenda that was not set by the concerns of the citizenry.
Tax dollars shouldn’t pay for Shabbat, and they shouldn’t pay for memorizing the Ten Commandments (although I do know that as recent as the 1970s, NC would send money to children who memorized the chatechism. . . I know this because my parents encouraged me to check into it in the early 1980s when I memorized it). So I think that some legislatures are eluding themselves with the notion of some sort of preservation of how things should be. That in fact, our lines of separation between church and state might already be somewhat blurred. Consider our blue laws. Consider that until the early 1980s most retail businesses were not open on Sunday. And those old time protestant families who finally did open up on Sundays (like the Belks), did so only to keep up with competitors—-that is, they could no longer afford to make a statement about what Sunday is for by not opening up their business on Sunday. Heck, I think we still have laws on the books that say you can’t ride your horse and buggy down the street on Sunday after 4:00 (when all good church-goers are safe in their homes, enjoying family time and paying respect to the Holy day of rest).
I think we have to be careful, lest we work ourselves into two opposite corners where neither the twain shall meet. . .that is to say, our state constitution (in NC) in Article IX leading into the statements about public school states: “Religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools, libraries, and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.” So how do we fit that aspect of religion and morality into this equation? It seems black and white, and yet it is not, really.
I was thinking in the public schools, we had pretty much figured out how to work around this aspect. We acknowledge that we can have the faith we want, and that all presentation of historical events related to any faith matters be presented as completely objective. As a music teacher, there is a little more flexibility in terms of exposing children to, say, Gospel music and so forth when covering various points in music history. Actually, western music is so tied to the history of the Christian church that there is no way to avoid discussing some religious music, even if it is simply an organ prelude by Bach. Our very musical system was created by a monk so that he could teach his church choir to sing with ease.
Growing up in public schools, I do not ever recall religion being an issue. It was a mystery as to what my teachers religious beliefs were (as it should have been)—unless they went to my church and were my Sunday School teachers, which many of them were.
🙂
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I would also add, even though it will cause uncomfortable self-reflection for many, that it is no wonder to me that these policies are prevailing in NC right now. The far right are the ones who nurture their faith life in an organized fashion.
When the democrats did have a hold on NC, the norm was to be part of a congregation of faith, and to nurture your faith life. The ideas of the moderate and mainstream prevailed because that aspect of their lives, the faith part that often leads us in our ideas of morality and what is right and should be right by the law, were nurtured on a regular basis.
With the decline in mainstream church attendance, has also come this prevalence of right wing ideas. They talk to their God! He listens.
Maybe those who don’t like it should try the same.
There is a wideness in the void of spiritual hunger. We fault the leadership of the likes of Arne Duncan because it is built on atheism and the philosophies of Ayn Rand. And at the same time we fault those who fill the void with very conservative notions. So where is the middle? If you don’t fill the void with something, someone else will fill it for you.
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Hmmm. Paul Ryan embraces Ayn Rand. Rand Paul is named after Ayn Rand. How do you refer to Arne Duncan and those two as having the same philosophies? Tea Party advocates don’t like Arne Duncan.
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I concur with you. There is a void in today’s youth that had previously been filled by parents who attended Church regularly or by the Church itself. Any denomination. There is a lack of right and wrong within our schools today, as any idea that may be derived from a religious background has been demonized and excluded. Where does that leave our youth? There is something to be said with maintaining some level of moral values without supporting the religious dogma that is tied to it. Thus the reason I spoke up about the need to include creationism, gun control, homosexuality, etc. in ANY “school” discussion is just as wrong as teaching about God. These are not academic in nature and indoctrination of left wing ideas is no different that indoctrination of right wing ideas.
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Deb, nevertheless from what I have read the neoliberalism Duncan espouses is that of Rand. Existentialism. And not the Kierkegaard kind. Right meets left the more extreme you go. It is a circle, after all.
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Heck yeh, far right and far left meet at the point of taking over. Scary.
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As for me and my house, we attend our moderate and main line Episcopal church every week with and children and hope and pray that reason prevails.
(If you are reading this and thinking “well lah tee dah,” then you can accept the prevailing right wing actions because you are not countering it with any spiritual energy).
Religion is real. Those who have it derive energy from it, and we can see who is deriving the most energy lately. Hopefully that will not always be the case because for any of us to be able to think and worship as we want, that energy has to be balanced.
It is not balanced right now and it is worth asking why.
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I never care what anyone’s religion is as long as they don’t push their personal interpretation as the only acceptable one. There are people in SW Ohio that are so adamant that creationism is corrupted if you embrace any science…and then they are the first ones to demand expert aid from doctors and schools when their child has an issue (that require science for solutions). They want to have their cake and eat it, too. I don’t care what they believe personally. When they start pushing it into schools, what does every other religion do, take a back seat to fundamentalists, who don’t agree among themselves what is absolutely in the Bible? It never ends. They can go to church and go to a fundamentalist college and become more missionaries. I don’t care. Each family has a right to do whatever they want, not just them.
When I was in school, I often gave the professor what they wanted with a note along the side stating my disagreement with certain things…and why.
Give kids that right. I wish kids could write on the margins of the standardized tests. Then they might find out what students REALLY know.
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The issue with the article is the schools usually pick and choose their curricula, and teach with a number of text. Yes, there are a rare few fundy schools that use Abeka from K – 8th or higher, but most don’t. Most teachers in fundy schools have been educated in yes, public schools and colleges, and question the text to the point that a debate will ensure.
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Dianne,
In reference to the attached article http://www.alternet.org/education/7-most-absurd-things-americas-kids-are-learning-thanks-conservative-gutting-public?page=0%2C1, are you familiar with The Family?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Family:_The_Secret_Fundamentalism_at_the_Heart_of_American_Power
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120746516
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How Eric Holder Responded to Bobby Jindal’s CPAC Segregationist Swipe
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“When we blindly adopt a religion, a political system, a literary dogma, we become automatons. We cease to grow.” ~Anais Nin
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the key word there, though, is blindly.
And you can’t assume everyone has done so blindly. Even if you disagree.
The key is a solid boundary between church and state.
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And you can’t assume that those who’ve been indoctrinated since early childhood were not blinded long ago and are later incapable of seeing clearly through the sieve of those experiences. “Even if you disagree.”
“No matter how big the lie; repeat it often enough and the masses will regard it as the truth.” ~ John F. Kennedy
“You’ve got to be taught
To hate and fear,
You’ve got to be taught
From year to year,
It’s got to be drummed
In your dear little ear
You’ve got to be carefully taught.
You’ve got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made,
And people whose skin is a diff’rent shade,
You’ve got to be carefully taught.
You’ve got to be taught before it’s too late,
Before you are six or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate,
You’ve got to be carefully taught!”
(“You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught” from “South Pacific” by Rodgers and Hammerstein)
Indoctrination counts on this. And as a backup, one can also discourage or seek to place a ban on critical thinking: “Texas Republican Party Seeks Ban on Critical Thinking, Other Stuff”
http://austinist.com/2012/06/27/texas_republican_party_seeks_ban_on.php
“It is always a much easier task to educate uneducated people than to re-educate the mis-educated.” ~ Herbert M. Shelton
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Reteach:
What is it that you stand for?
Nothing?
Nothing and everything? That must get exhausting.
I don’t understand your point. Whose indoctrination are you pointing to? Because you know JF Kennedy was himself an indoctrinated Roman Catholic. Everyone is indoctrinated in something.
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My background includes Judaism, Protestantism and Catholicism. I was taught to question, research, formulate educated opinions and revise according to empirical evidence. I stand for the arts and sciences and the advancement of knowledge. I found that it’s much more exhausting to maintain and justify Bronze age beliefs and doctrines, which promote the fear of God and intolerance of differing perspectives, than it is to live a principled life that is driven by one’s own socially-minded moral code.
“Ah, so: is it possible to believe that one could have a God without using him? Yes, it is possible.” ~Rainer Maria Rilke
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One of the problems with the Common Core is that it doesn’t specify any particular content to be taught; e.g. the fact that Catholics and Orthodox were the ONLY types of Christians for 1,500 years after Christ. The new CC history standards COULD specify this kind of thing, but I fear they won’t. It’ll be mostly “history skills”. If this is the case, many public schools will join Christian voucher/charter schools in perpetuating our kids’ ignorance.
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No love for the Cathars? Well, I guess the Pope Innocent III did not show them any either.
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Too much nuance for seventh graders and you lose them. The broad brush has its uses.
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What is taught in voucher-funded fundamentalist schools was analyzed in Albert Menendez’s 1993 book, Visions of Reality: What Fundamentalist Schools Teach, published by Prometheus Books. — Edd Doerr (arlinc.org)
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For more on vouchers see my monograph “The Great School Voucher Fraud” at arlinc.org. — Edd Doerr
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