From: exukjb@exu.ericsson.se (ken bell)
Newsgroups: alt.politics.bush,alt.politics.marrou,talk.politics.misc,alt.politics.elections,talk.politics.theory
Subject: Re: Is this a socialist county?
Date: 17 Aug 92 22:07:56 GMT
Organization: Ericsson Network Systems, Inc.

In article <1992Aug12.231454.23140@oakhill.sps.mot.com> pjm@anegada.sps.mot.com (Patrick J. McGuinness) writes:
>From: pjm@anegada.sps.mot.com (Patrick J. McGuinness)
>Subject: Re: Is this a socialist county?
>Date: 12 Aug 92 23:14:54 GMT

>In article <1992Aug10.132039.14604@sei.cmu.edu> gh@sei.cmu.edu (Gaurang Hirpara) writes:
>>
>>In article <1992Aug7.154657.19944@mksol.dseg.ti.com>, mccall@mksol.dseg.ti.com (fred j mccall 575-3539) writes:
>>|> Well, let's do a little thought experiment here.  Let's suppose that
>>|> both you and I live in the same small town.  The town is primarily of
>>|> your religion (whatever that might be) and religious classes are
>>|> required at the school.  The nearest alternative school is in a town
>>|> 60 miles away.  This leaves me faced with the choice of either coming
>>|> up with transportation to a town 60 miles away and back for my child,
>>|> subjecting my child to mandatory religious indoctrination which is
>>|> being funded by public monies (such instruction, perhaps, being at
>>|> odds with my own religion), or of quitting my job, uprooting my
>>|> family, and moving elsewhere.  This hardly seems reasonable to me, and
>>|> is certainly not a situation to be promoted by the spending of public
>>|> monies. 

>How is this different from the situation today, where parents have
>to tolerate less-than-optimal schooling for their children and,
>simply by virtue of where they live, cannot remedy the situation.
>So people spend great sums of money, move house, just to get in the 'right
>neighborhood' with the good schools.

>Needless to say, the best schools correspond to the neighborhoods
>with the most expensive housing.
>We have ended up with a kind of educational aparteid.
>A school choice system could end it.

>>|> Ok, now let's change the situation just a little.  Let us suppose for
>>|> a moment that the Mormon school just happens to have the best program
>>|> in mathematics.  Is it reasonable to require that students who want
>>|> that mathematics program MUST take the religion courses?
>>|> 
>>|> Ok, now change the situation just a little more.  Suppose it is YOU
>>|> who are the 'odd man out' and that everyone else in the area is
>>|> sending their children to a school which has required courses in
>>|> Satanism, which is the only school within reasonable travelling
>>|> distance.  So, where do you send your child to school, and do you have
>>|> a problem with that?
>>
>>       How are any of these situations related to the voucher system?
>>       What if these conditions existed without the voucher system,
>>       you'd still be faced with the same choices. Would you send 
>>       your child to a school that required Satanism now?

>This is hardly a hypothetical question. I read recently about a
>kindergarten teacher who was teaching kids that witches weren't the
>bad people that the fairy tales made them out to be, and there
>were actually good witches. Hmmm, your tax dollars at work.

>Are the anti-choice people opposed to this blatant act of
>religious indoctrination? :-) 

>-pjm

PJM, the unchallenged assumption at work here is 'funded by public monies'; 
accept it, and it is correct. If the school is public then it certainly 
cannot not impose any particular religious doctrines.  But let's challenge 
the basic assumption first--that there should be public schools!  It's the 
public school system itself that is what is or should be at issue, and that'
s what gives rise to the issues about whose religious views are to be 
taught in them.  If the school system were privatized in toto that would 
be a nonissue.
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Kenny Bell                          *        Welcome to Mind Wars
Ericsson Network Systems, Inc       *        Abstract Arts BBS 386-7907
P.O. Box 833875                     *        Severity with oneself is heroism.
Richardson, TX 75083-3875           *        --A.G.Sertillanges (France, 1943)
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