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Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Religious school advocate wants public money but private curriculums.

While shilling for public money to finance religion based schools, Robert B. Aguirre said it is up to religious schools alone to set curriculum.

During a blog chat on Redefined Ed I asked him if public should pay for classes that present non scientific topics, such as  intelligent design as science. To which he replied: Vouchers - or any form of public assistance for students - should never dictate curriculum. That is the role of the private school.

He then went on to talk about choice as if it was somehow holy saying:  The whole point of educational options is just that - options. The whole point of empowering parents is to give them the power (as opposed to some entity) to determine what educational option is best for their child. This is the very nature of parental empowerment and equal opportunity to education.

Sad to say a lot of parents don’t make the best choice or even informed choices for that matter  and this is made even harder because the forces in favor of school choice have sold the narrative that public schools are failing and private schools an charter schools are doing better and none of that is true.

What Mr. Aguirre and many of the pro school choice advocates often fail to acknowledge is public school aren’t just for a set of parents and their children, they are for all of society to benefit whether they have children in public schools or not. That is why everybody chips in not just parents.

What the supporters of vouchers for religious schools actually want is the ability have cake and eat it too, they want money from the public but also want to set their own standards, hiring practices, certifications etc, that are often in opposition to societies minimum public standards.   

The bottom line is if people want to send their children to private religious schools either they or God, who I am a fan of, should provide.

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