“Public schooling has produced some of the most passionate and celebrated dust-ups on the American civic landscape. Our history is rich with them: 19th-century battles over whose version of Christianity would be taught; school libraries exiling Huck Finn and Holden Caulfield; modern disputes over everything from multiculturalism to reading instruction.
“And unfortunately, the new school year already has the makings of a hot one . . .
“Mt. Vernon, Ohio, has been divided for years over science teacher John Freshwater, who’s been embroiled controversies over religious classroom displays, a Bible on his desk, and, most recently, a complaint that he burned a temporary cross on a child’s arm to demonstrate an electrostatic device. In June, the Mt. Vernon school board voted unanimously to fire Freshwater, but he’s appealing the decision and has many defenders in the town who want him — and his Christian faith — to remain in their schools. As one yard sign recently seen in the town read: “The student goes. We support Mr. Freshwater. The Bible stays! . . .
“Unfortunately, as bad as they are, these looming conflicts will likely be but a small sampling of the public-schooling battles that will scar American communities this year. Over the 2005-2006 school year, I tracked nearly 150 skirmishes like these nationwide — pitting basic rights like free speech, religious exercise, and self-determination against each other. And those “values” conflicts are just a subset of feuds that involve everything from budgets to scheduling the start of the school year.
“Thankfully, there is a road to peace: school choice. Let people choose schools that share their values and goals, and most of the reasons to fight melt away. And choice needn’t come through vouchers — which, though less coercive than the status quo, still send people’s tax dollars to schools they might find objectionable. Education tax credits, both for personal use and donations to scholarship funds, let all people decide which schools will get their support.
Education needn’t be a battleground. Give parents and taxpayers freedom, and peace will be at hand.”
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Education is a battleground. I have an even better solution than Mr. McCluskey’s – return the schools to the churches and to private enterprise. Dismantle the Federal Education Department bureaucracy, eliminate the state departments of education, and break up the worthless teachers’ unions, the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). Return control of the schools to parents. Get the government out of the education business. It sure seems that whatever government touches its screws up. A reverse Midas touch, perhaps? The Founders of this nation had reason to try to keep government limited. What has happened to our schools is illustrative of government intervention or interference at its worst.
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