Petition: Halt Louisiana's voucher program that could fund creationism.

[Ziploc Surprise]

Ziploc Surprise,

We in Australia have had for decades, direct government funding of non public schools, which include evangelical ones which often teach young earth creationism. However then again a lot of non public schools here are Catholic or Mainline Protestant ones which often do a better job in teaching religion than the public schools do.

I personally don't think schools vouchers are bad, indeed I do see a lot of merit in them. However the schools which receive these vouchers should be subject to government oversight when it comes to their curriculum's, to give a couple of examples;

1. Requiring schools state and non-state to have objective comparative religious studies classes.
2. Requiring that schools have properly qualified counselors, social workers and psychologists.
3. Requiring that they teach things like evolution, critical thinking and the scientific method in science classes.

I used to live in Louisiana. Specifically for that state the state has little control over private schools. They can teach all sorts of crap. Other schenanagans happen also. I looked into a few private schools there when my son was kindergarten age. The private schools there scared me. I don't have links that can prove this but I'm sure they exist.

I have also heard rumor (I don't have the time to substantiate this) that if vouchers could go to home schoolers some parents would take the money and put it towards drugs and booze. I don't know if they give vouchers to home schoolers and if they did, how they ensure the money will go towards curriculum. I do know that, as a home schooler who lives in Texas, there is little (almost no) regulation over what parents must teach. Therefore, if this problem continues, and Texas were to get a voucher system they would have to fix quite a few holes to prevent something like the rumor I mentioned above from happening.

As for vouchers going to regulated schools I don't see a problem with it. Perhaps problems exist. I'm open to new information on this but right now I don't see a problem with it. As for public money going towards religious schools that include in their curriculum a religious education. I have mixed and often conflicting problems with this. I'm open to debate, it helps me figure things out for myself.

On one hand I understand the argument that if a child goes to private school the parents of that child must still pay taxes that fund the public school that their child isn't using. Their child isn't burdening the system, therefore the parents of that child should have the right to choose where their school tax money goes.

On the other hand is the separation between church and state problem. A voucher system means that people, whether they have children or not, are paying tax money that could go to support a religion they don't believe in. I'm not comfortable with this. If someone has a good argument or two that could change my mind about this I say "well, convince me." Present your argument, you may have a point.