Here is an interesting take on the American school voucher situation. The author's point is that the primary objection to school vouchers (in the USA, at least) is the feeling that taxpayers shouldn't have to subsidize instruction in religious values. There is no value-free education, though; as Susan Wise Bauer points out in her book on homeschooling, in our society, to believe that there is a God with moral standards for us is considered bias, whereas to insist that there is no God, or at least no fixed morality, is considered neutrality. In reality, of course, either viewpoint will inevitably be reflected in the teachings of its adherents. So when liberals insist that it's unfair to use public funds to promote a certain agenda, they only mean it if the agenda in question is religious or conservative; certainly almost any public school in the USA unquestioningly advances the dogmas of diversity, reproductive choice, feminism, and multiculturalism.
I fear that the author misses the point, though, in her assumption that pointing out that any school has its bias and its agenda will change the debate. Teacher's unions, teacher's colleges and socialist governments are all well aware of the agenda advanced by public schools. Financial constraints and equality of opportunity are the arguments they use to promote public education above all other options, but at least as significant is the fact that television-obsessed children of parents with busy lives may well spend more of their waking hours with their teachers than with their family. This is why these interest groups not only refuse to subsidize home schooling and private schools but frequently do all they can to hamper them: public schools represent the chance to indoctrinate children in the Correct Way of Thinking (complete with Heather Has Two Mommies, Columbus was a genocidal tool of imperialists, etc) for 25 hours a week, 32 weeks a year, until they're at least 16. As the Jesuits could tell you, by the time the poor kids are 7, the damage has already been done.
Posted by Clio at June 20, 2003 07:21 PM