by J.M. Schell

Created on: June 24, 2008

School Choice: Why Tell the Truth When You Can Muddy the Picture?

First, those hoping to muddy the issue hijacked this topic. "School Choice" is the term commonly used to speak about vouchers, not whether a district allows you to send your kid to any school within the district, or even to cross to lines. Those working within the education system, jealously guarding their own rice bowl feel driven to engage in this sort of 5th column attack to purposely confuse the issue. It certainly shines a light on them, their tactics and their true intentions.

Vouchers, or School Choice is the idea that a portion of the per-pupil dollars a district spends to "educate" a child in the public schools would follow that child to any school his or her parents choose to send the child. Hence, a parent may use those dollars to send their child to either any public school in the district or state in which has enacted the program or to a private school. This last is that upon which the self-interested public "education" industry has fallen like a pack of ravenous weasels. In America, most reasonably affordable private schools are religious schools that are able to offer a typically far superior education to that provided in most American public schools primarily due to their mission. Of course, public "educators" aim their strongest accusations at Christian schools, but there are any number of affordable traditionalist Jewish schools and even Muslim schools, as well. Since it would not be politically correct to mention either of these, they are rarely if ever brought into the equation, and those opposed to choice slam Christian schools, typically identifying them with racism and radicalism.

The illogical argument public "educators" use is that if a percentage of the per-pupil expenditure follows a student to a religious school, this means the "state" is supporting that religion. This argument, based on the logical fallacy of begging the question (redefining the question in order to make your own argument more defensible), claims that the US Constitution expressly forbids "giving" money to "the Church." In fact, the US Constitution says nothing of the sort. The Founders were brilliant men able to express themselves quite well, actually. What they said was: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." While those of a certain mindset have in recent years . . . reinterpreted this to mean that no governmental agency shall

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