Columnist Jonah Goldberg is awfully cute in they way he uses “yada yada yada” to dismiss the deeply felt principles held by proponents of public education. I have questions:
*What do we do with the kids who are not accepted by the private and charter schools that he mentions? As far as I know, there are criteria and admission standards for most of these schools. What if these same kids have parents who have to work, and therefore do not have the option of home-schooling either? It is all well and good that he says all children will be educated, but where do the kids go whom no one wants in their schools?
*Why should the American public pay for a school that may, for example, condemn their gay children as evil? You could argue that is what some families are experiencing now by having to use schools that discuss topics with which they personally disagree — such as evolution or birth control — but in the case of public schools, the default position is tolerance and curriculum that is subject to rigorous scientific criteria. Could the same be said of schools that promote a religious agenda?
This probably goes under Goldberg’s “yada” category, but the United States of America has a separation of church and state, and for good reason. I don’t want my tax dollars going to teach religion.
I have a passionate belief in public education as the heart and soul of this country. When it fails, it is a tragedy and one that must be addressed with the vigor equal to, say, the war on terror.
We would be far better served as a multicultural nation to look at ways to fix this system.
This could very well mean a complete overhaul.
What is not called for is the giving over of education to the private sector, so we can be further separated into haves and have-nots, or balkanized into separate belief groups.
We are a nation of immigrants, and our public education system helps to turn us into one nation. What Goldberg discusses just seems like one more attempt at funding religious schools.
