creationism spreading in schools, thanks to vouchers (?)

[Blake]

”I first began investigating creationist school vouchers as my part of my fight against creationism in my home state of Louisiana. Over the past few months, I’ve learned creationist vouchers aren’t just a Louisiana problem—they’re an American problem. School vouchers are, as James Gill recently wrote in the New Orleans Times-Picayune, “the answer to a creationist’s prayer.”

Liberty Christian School, in Anderson, Indiana, has field trips to the Creation Museum and students learn from the creationist A Beka curriculum. Kingsway Christian School, in Avon, Indiana, also has Creation Museum field trips. Mansfield Christian School, in Ohio, teaches science through the creationist Answers in Genesis website, run by the founder of the Creation Museum. The school’s Philosophy of Science page says, “the literal view of creation is foundational to a Biblical World View.” All three of these schools, and more than 300 schools like them, are receiving taxpayer money.

So far, I have do ented 310 schools, in nine states and the District of Columbia that are teaching creationism, and receiving tens of millions of dollars in public money through school voucher programs.............”

....

http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/01/16/creat...s-to-vouchers/

[Blake]

”......... This year, we may see even more creationist school vouchers. Both Tennessee and Texas are considering passing voucher programs. Indiana and Georgia may expand their programs.

Advocates for vouchers argue that private schools and more compe ion would offer a better education for American students. Schools that teach creationism and do not meet basic science standards will fail our students and do not deserve taxpayer funding.

We must to speak out to prevent funding these creationist schools with our public money. We must speak out and end these existing creationist voucher programs. As Americans, we must do the right thing and teach our students evidence-based science.

Zack Kopplin is a 19-year-old student at Rice University, and one of the leading American voices against the teaching of creationism in schools. He was featured as an MHP Foot Soldier last March, and profiled at length this week by io9.”

[boutons_deux]

stupid, ignorant Christian s

The Dumbing Of America

How the religious right is undermining education

there is no better way to affect the future than by propagandizing the young. In this current post election season, the Biblically driven, often racist, members of society are once again regrouping to fight another day.
With the money of wealth funders like Richard and Betsy DeVos (sister of Blackwater scion Eric Prince and daughter of Elsa and Edgar Prince of the Amway fortune) and the Walton, Koch and Scaife Foundations, simpatico politicians are hard at work bringing Dominionist [3] ideals quietly into the forefront of American education policy. While much of the country argues about budgets, deficits, and guns, a cleverly camouflaged package of School Choice and ”Bible-driven curricula“ make their way up the ladder.


On the surface, School Choice is purportedly about increasing opportunities for inner city and rural youth. The all-important subtext, however, is that School Choice is really about freeing up dollars for Christian-based education. An important arrow that energizes today’s religious quiver is the intentional misuse of language in changing the debate by referring to public schools as “government schools” and public education as a “government school monopoly,” thus instantly and directly speaking to Tea Partiers and Libertarians.


To still relatively scant notice, the call for “School Choice” or Vouchers continues to play out in state capitols across the nation in an effort to increase Biblically based education through a redirection of tax dollars from public to private religious schools. In order to accomplish the end goal of Christianizing all students, stealth remains largely the rule of the day. In 2002, DeVos told The Heritage Foundation [4],


http://www.salon.com/2013/02/25/how_the_religious_right_is_undermining_education/

[DarrinS]

I'm not a religious person -- let me make that clear.

But, isn't it a fact, that our society has become more secular, and at the same time, dumber than generations that preceded it?

[Spurminator]

What society? American society? If we are, in fact, getting dumber, I don't think you'll find the segment of the population dragging the average down is any more secular than it was 50 years ago.

Furthermore, do you believe the societies in the nations that are quickly passing America up in education are getting more religious?

(And I AM a religious person.)

[Latarian Milton]

religion might be an obstacle against the development of science but it doesn't mean we have to give up our traditional moral standards imho. es and evils have all escaped from the kitchens in recent years w/ religion gone, and you're ing stupid if you see that as a positive change tbh

[Wild Cobra]

Isn't this part of why we have a voucher system? So parents can send their children to schools that don't teach the things they don't like? What's wrong with a parent wanting a voucher to use in a school that teaches creationism rather than evolution?

Blake...

Do you think the feds should be forcing programs on kids that the parents don't want?

[redzero]

If schools are teaching outright false stuff, the government should definitely get involved, private or public.

[Wild Cobra]

If schools are teaching outright false stuff, the government should definitely get involved, private or public.

So...

It is your opinion that the government is obligated to violate the first amendment?

[redzero]

So...

It is your opinion that the government is obligated to violate the first amendment?

No, I believe that schools shouldn't lie to their students.

[FuzzyLumpkins]

Parents are not contributing all of the money that goes into those vouchers. As such they do not get to proselytize on the state's dime.

[Latarian Milton]

If schools are teaching outright false stuff, the government should definitely get involved, private or public.

the government is the culprit behind the whole imho. it's the government who wants to indoctricate the kids with stupid stuffs and keep their IQs low so that they're easier to be governed when they're grown. education doesn't make one smarter, but makes him dumber tbh

[symple19]

[Wild Cobra]

No, I believe that schools shouldn't lie to their students.

And you wish the force of the government to impost your point of view.

[redzero]

And you wish the force of the government to impost your point of view.

Facts are facts. I want schools to stick to facts. Private schools can teach their fairy tales in theology courses.

What do you have against standards? Do you think private schools should be able to teach anything?

[ElNono]

But, isn't it a fact, that our society has become more secular, and at the same time, dumber than generations that preceded it?

In what respect? In the science realm (which is what the OP is somewhat about), overall, I think we're light years ahead of preceding generations, IMO.

[ElNono]

And you wish the force of the government to impost your point of view.

What point of view would that be? Telling kids there are certain areas of science we don't know the answers to yet would be: A) true B) infinitely better than selling them 'god of the gaps'

[Wild Cobra]

Facts are facts. I want schools to stick to facts. Private schools can teach their fairy tales in theology courses.

What do you have against standards? Do you think private schools should be able to teach anything?

How can you know with certainty that some divine hand wasn't creating our world?

Were you there?

[Wild Cobra]

What point of view would that be? Telling kids there are certain areas of science we don't know the answers to yet would be: A) true B) infinitely better than selling them 'god of the gaps'

I see you don't believe in the 1st amendment either.

[redzero]

^ I see that you don't want actual facts to be taught in schools.

How can you know with certainty that some divine hand wasn't creating our world?

Were you there?

I don't know for certain, which is irrelevant. The fact of the matter is the Genesis creation story is bull and should not be taught anywhere outside of a theology class.

I'm sorry that you don't care about standards as much as I do. A school that starts throwing away accepted science in favor of religion should be stopped. Period. The kids aren't getting a proper education.

[FromWayDowntown]

Schools teaching scientific principles that don't depend on religious beliefs = no establishment of religion and no burden on free exercise (since the choice to NOT teach creationism does not preclude citizens from teaching that religious belief in their homes)

Schools trying to teach creationism = endorsement of religion and burdens the free exercise rights of those who don't share that religious viewpoint.

I know for my own sake that I don't want public school teachers having to deal with weighty philosophical issues of religious nuance, just as I don't want a math teacher or an english teacher or a social studies teacher trying to inculcate religious values in my kids. That part of raising my kids is my job, not a public school's. Teachers in public schools have a hard enough time teaching the subjects that they're qualified to teach; asking them to become seminarians as well seems patently ridiculous to me.

[ElNono]

I see you don't believe in the 1st amendment either.

The 1st amendment isn't a matter of faith, it's a matter of law. It's not an absolute right, and specifically 'school speech' is an area that has seen large amounts of litigation over the years.

What's highly hypocritical is your support for charlatan education while at the same time riling up on the product of such education, people wholly uneducated and unprepared for the real world that find it difficult to get a job.

[ElNono]

How can you know with certainty that some divine hand wasn't creating our world?

Were you there?

The correct answer to that is "We don't know what created our world yet, we'll get there when we get there. In the meantime, there's all this other well-established science to work on".

[Wild Cobra]

The 1st amendment isn't a matter of faith, it's a matter of law. It's not an absolute right, and specifically 'school speech' is an area that has seen large amounts of litigation over the years.

What's highly hypocritical is your support for charlatan education while at the same time riling up on the product of such education, people wholly uneducated and unprepared for the real world that find it difficult to get a job.

So why do you want to tell private schools, which parents take their kids to by choice, what can and cannot be taught.

And you say you aren't an authoritarian.

[redzero]

So why do you want to tell private schools, which parents take their kids to by choice, what can and cannot be taught.

And you say you aren't an authoritarian.

Again, private schools should be able to teach anything?