A Republican candidate for South Carolina lieutenant governor wants to replace public schooling with church-run schools, but he admits it would be a difficult process that could take years.
Ray Moore, a retired Army Reserves chaplain and president of Frontline Ministries, sketched out his plan for dismantling public education in the U.S. on Wednesday’s edition of The Janet Mefferd Show.
He has encouraged Christian families to withdraw their children from public schools and educate them at home or enroll them in religious schools, and he believes the tipping point would occur at about 25 percent to 35 percent of the total K-12 population.
“Then the states would then negotiate, perhaps taking out of their constitution platform, or the provision, that says the state had to provide education, and it would gradually be handed over to churches, families, and private associations,” Moore said. “That’s the way it was for the first 200 years of American history.”
You may remember this loon from an earlier post in which he suggested that Christians should remove their children from the Pharaoh's schools.
Moore is almost correct in that early American schools were organized by local parishes taught by clergy or church employees. However that meant that those in the north were significantly better educated than the citizens living in the South.
Only if they followed the correct religion of course, or had the proper heritage.
That also meant that African Americans remained uneducated, and women were discouraged from seeking higher education.
School reform came in the 1900's and that helped to create a more equitable public education for ALL Americans. Though of course poorer areas still suffer.
Clearly Moore simply wants to return to a time when the church controlled what is, and is not, taught and who is, and who is not, worthy of that education.
And that is really what is behind NCLB, standardized testing, school vouchers, and bills freeing up tax money for private schools.
These Republicans do NOT want to fix public education in America, they want to do away with it.
Usually they are smart enough not to say it out loud. But much like Cliven Bundy and racism, Ray Moore is simply saying in public what the majority of Republican politicians know to keep private.
Am I missing something?
ReplyDeleteCitizens pay taxes and some of those taxes go to public schools, whether they have children in those schools or not. Taxes don't provide money for families who choose to homeschool their kids or send them to private school.
The only effect the withdrawal of these kids from public school would have is to reduce overcrowding.
Why would states have to negotiate? The absence of these christian nutjob families would make public schools much, much better for many reason.
Plus, many cannot afford to send their kids to private and/or religious schools. Public schools and teachers are VERY necessary to those that are poor and in the middle class.
DeleteRepublicans need to be voted out of office across the nation in the upcoming elections. Voters need to research the candidate's thoughts, voting records and statements before marking their ballots.
We can get the vote out in huge numbers and counter the Koch Brothers financial support of Republicans across the nation!
Here in Michigan, the GOP conned voters a whole back so schools get money based on enrollment. Then they funnel lottery proceeds into tax breaks for corps, and pretend they have to end teacher benefits to balance the budget. So, if a quarter of the kids were withdrawn, it would be a serious hardship on already cash-strapped districts.
DeleteNot in states with vouchers - see LA and IN
DeleteIt starts at the state level - DO NOT VOTE (R) Ver, not even for dog catcher or librarian.
DeleteChristians have grabbed ‘theocratic control over public schools’ in Louisiana, critic says
ReplyDeleteYesterday, the Louisiana Senate Education Committee upheld a controversial law that allows science teachers to bring “supplemental science education materials” into the classroom.
The Committee voted 3-1 to uphold the Louisiana Science Education Act (LSEA) — which critics contend allows teachers to introduce creationist literature into science classrooms — on the grounds that no proof that teachers were importing religious-oriented material into the public school could be found.
The LSEA, which was passed in 2008 with the support of Governor Bobby Jindal and prominent state conservatives, allows teachers to use “supplemental textbooks and other instructional materials” so long as they “help students understand, analyze, critique, and review scientific theories in an objective manner.” Gene Mills, president of the Christian Louisiana Family Forum, called it “a reasonable academic freedom policy, one that has become a model for others.”
Critics of the law, including Dr. Jim Dugan, claimed at the hearing that LSEA is a ruse designed to allow for the teaching of creationism and intelligent design in public schools under the aegis of “critical thinking.”
“I think it’s obvious to any thoughtful person that the poorly written and deceptively named ‘Louisiana Science Education Act’ is a crude attempt to provide legal cover for the teaching of creationism and intelligent design in public schools,” he said.
“The bill exclusive targets — and I’m quoting from the bill here — ‘evolution,’ ‘the origins of life,’ ‘global warming,’ and ‘human cloning.’ These are not topics,” he continued, “thought to be problematic by scientists, or science educators, but [are] wedge issues frequently used by Christian fundamentalists to attempt theocratic control over public school curriculum.”
Raw Story spoke to Dr. Dugan this morning, and his reaction to the Committee’s decision was that he “was disappointed, but not surprised.”
“It’s a testimony to the influence of Mills and the Christian Louisiana Family Forum,” he said. “Because there’s no purpose [to the LSEA] other than sneaking in creationsim.”
Raw Story asked Dr. Dugan whether Mills or any other proponent of the LSEA had offered an alternative curriculum that didn’t involve creationism, and he said that they hadn’t, adding that “if it isn’t about creationism, it isn’t about anything.” The only possible purpose behind the LSEA is to create “legal cover” for teaching non-scientific theories in science classrooms, so that judges couldn’t overrule local school districts as Elizabeth Foote recently did in Sabine Parish.
Watch Dr. Jim Dugan’s testimony before the Committee below.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/04/25/christians-have-grabbed-theocratic-control-over-public-schools-in-louisiana-critic-says/
South Carolina seems to be teeming with GOP idiots. This guy is all butt hurt that his kids got more attention than he did. What a POS.
ReplyDeleteSC GOP candidate: Women cause ’95 percent’ of divorces by loving their kids too much
“I find that in about 95 percent of broken marriages, though the husband’s the one that ran out on his wife, the wife loves her children more than she does her husband,” Bowers said. “That is an abominable idolatry.”
He then directed his comments, his voice rising, to the women in his congregation, which he led from 2000 to 2012.
“Do you hear me, ladies?” Bowers said. “It is an abominable idolatry to love your children more than you love your husband, and it will ruin your marriage. And yet you blame it on him because he ran off with some other woman! He did run off with some other woman, and you packed his bags. All of his emotional bags, you packed for him. Is that true in every case? No, but it’s true in the vast preponderance of them.”
He described “abominable idolatry” as “unlawful worship” as he continued lecturing women.
“You just ran him off,” Bowers said. “You paid more attention to your children than you did to him. ‘Oh, he doesn’t need me?’ He needs you more than they do. He chose you, they didn’t. An abominable idolatry.”
What the fuck?
DeleteI can't figure out why these gasbags think it's better to think of men as weak-minded creatures (they need all the attention, women need to dress modestly so men won't be tempted).
Wow, I'd hate to be HIS kids!
Deletei'm sooo beyond being pissed off at these gawd_damned reich wing bible thumpin' evangelical domestic taliban - they can all go fuk themselves and their own just leave the rest of us out of it ..
ReplyDeleteFUK 'EM !
Here Here Jesse. The American Taliban is coming out of the shadows and it is an angry, ignorant and scary group.
ReplyDeleteI'd say its even MORE frightening as the Taliban does not have thousands of nuclear warheads at its disposal.
DeleteThese religious freaks from the Republican party should be taken somewhere and educated. Do they realize the majority (throughout America) do not want religion in ANY of their school systems and are adamant that government funds should NOT be used to pay for them or give them their initial startups?
ReplyDeleteDo they realize that less and less folks in America are actually Christian? Plus, these Republican that profess they are Christians/religious are the ones that in no way act as such. They are actually projecting very evil and hateful ways -showing their racism - many have been proven to be members of the KKK and it's proven that they could care less about the poor and middle class.
Plus, they are promoting revolution in our country. Do they realize that many of them would end up the losers in that type of event?
Sorry, but I view the majority of them as being idiots, uneducated, non christian and having no knowledge of the Constitution.
They will lose!
I'm betting that this clown was one of many who argued (argues) against the legitimacy of Obama's presidency on the allegations of his attending a madrasa. I see no difference, in principle, between so-called Christian home-schooling and similar Islamic curricula and/or methods.
ReplyDeleteLet’s not sugarcoat this. What the one percent wants is burger flippers and cannon fodder. They don’t want the children of the middle-class or poor competing against their precious issue. Bill and Hillary couldn’t happen in their new world, never mind that Hillary was at the top of her classes, and Bill wasn’t far behind.
ReplyDeleteI know we get tired, but we have to continue fighting the zealots. I value my public school education, and I value my father’s, even if it was in a one room schoolhouse. He tested at eighth grade level (he was a little young but always listening) and he could do pretty much anything.
In 2009, Moore was advocating that fundy Christians GET OUT of politics and now the lying, fork-tongued, speaking out of both sides of his mouth at the same time hypocrite is running fro office. TYPICAL.
ReplyDelete'That also meant that African Americans remained uneducated, and women were discouraged from seeking higher education.'
ReplyDeleteGryphen, I believe I speak for Candidate Moore when I ask in his distinctive rural drawl "And y'all's problem w'this is exactly what, boy?"