While the assault upon public education in Indiana has not received the publicity of other states, the results have been equally, if not more devastating. One of the most odious of the new laws is the voucher program, which takes my tax money and allows it to be spent to support private, parochial, and for-profit schools.
Yesterday, the Indiana State Teachers Association (ISTA) filed suit to block implementation of the bill because it violates the Indiana Constitution. The full text of the ISTA newsletter I received is included below the squiggle.
In the interest of full disclosure, let me say that I belong to the ISTA (as well as my local and the NEA). My wife also belongs to those organizations and is currently in Chicago where she is an ISTA delegate at the NEA Convention. However, I am not a spokesperson for the ISTA and my remarks here should not be construed as the view of that or any other organization. These views are my own.
Here is the ISTA newsletter:
July 1, 2011
Lawsuit Challenging Indiana School Voucher Entitlement Program Filed Today
INDIANAPOLIS – Today, a lawsuit was filed in Marion County Superior Court requesting a preliminary injunction against the implementation of Indiana’s recently enacted school voucher law.
The voucher law violates provisions of the Indiana Constitution that safeguard Indiana taxpayers by ensuring that they are not compelled, through the taxes they pay, to support religious institutions, ministries and places of worship.
It also prohibits the State from diverting public education funds from the “uniform system of Common Schools” that are “equally open to all,” and instead uses this public money to send some children to private schools that are free to exercise student admissions preferences based on religion and other factors.
Signed into law by Gov. Mitch Daniels on May 5, the new law could cut funds to public schools by up to $65.8 million to finance voucher entitlements for private, religious and for-profit schools, a move that is clearly an unconstitutional use of public, taxpayer funds.
“There is no question that this law violates the provisions of the Indiana Constitution that protect taxpayer dollars from being funneled to private, religious and for-profit organizations,” said Teresa Meredith, a teacher in the Shelbyville Central Schools and one of the plaintiffs in the case. “The law also violates laws that seek to safeguard Hoosier students. This voucher program will provide public funds to private schools that can give individual preference to students based on test scores, disabilities, wealth and personal faith. Such preferences should not be publicly funded.”
If allowed to stand, this program will drain additional resources away from schools that are already suffering from deep budget cuts. “This law is also bad educational policy. How can lawmakers justify draining additional millions in resources from local public schools—on top of the $300 million in cuts made last year?” added Meredith. “The implementation of this law will most certainly result in larger class sizes, more teacher layoffs and fewer instructional programs for Hoosier public school students.”
My Question
How are right-wing Hoosiers going to react when their tax dollars are spent on the following private and parochial schools:
Charles Darwin the Redeemer School
At CDRS, students will begin each day by giving a prayer of thanks to Charles Darwin, who redeemed us from the sin of believing the earth is 6,000 years old and that the human race actually began with Adam and Eve. Students will be instructed that it is only through the grace of our lord Darwin that we can understand the world as it actually exists.
In literature, all students will study the holy word of Darwin, On the Origin of Species, as well as a variety of Comparative Literature courses such as Fictional Journeys: Noah and Gulliver, Large Animals in Mythology: Jonah and Paul Bunyan, and Creating a Culture from Whole Cloth: J.R.R. Tolkien and Paul of Tarsus.
The science curriculum will include instruction in such subjects as Galileo Was Right, Physics Really Works, and Astronomy, not Astrology. Advanced courses include Medicine vs. Miracles and Nobody Rode a Dinosaur.
A variety of other classes will be offered, including social studies, mathematics, archeology, abnormal psychology (taught in conjunction with Nobody Rode a Dinosaur), art, music, theater, computer science, and culinary arts.
In addition to the traditional equinox and solstice holidays, February 12 will honor Darwin's birthday. Extra credit will be given to students who visit the Galapagos Islands on that date.
Dress code requires that students have the school logo clearly visible at all times.
The Atheist School
At The Atheist School, children will be required to leave out the words "under God" each morning when they recite the Pledge of Allegiance, and in December everyone will repeat the phrase "Happy Holidays" ten times each morning in preparation for winter break.
Students in lower grades will be shown NASA photographs proving that there is no "heaven" "up there." The music program will include hymns such as "Einstein Loves Me, This I Know," "What a Friend We Have in Darwin," "Amazing Space," and "Rock of Ages" which includes this verse (everybody sing along!):
Rock of ages, cleft for me,
Let me teach myself with thee.
Carbon dating is a clue.
Using science to undo
Myths and lies, the double curse,
Save me from each Bible verse.
Older students will study the lives of St. Richard Dawkins and Our Lady of Perpetual Reality--Madeline Murray O'Hair. Advanced courses will focus on Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time and Dawkins' The God Delusion.
Student dress code requires that the front of the student's top bear the words: "I drank God's milkshake" in letters of a contrasting color not less than two inches high.
The Al Qaeda Madrassa of Sharia Law
At AQMSL, male students will study the true prophet Muhammad and will read only the Koran and fatwas issued by the martyred Osama Bin Laden. Female students will spend the day locked in a closet.
Academic offerings include: Remember the Crusades, True Stories of the Inquisition, 20th Century American Foreign Policy, Holocaust Mythology, Why the Infidels Must Go, and Jihad for Fun and Profit. The career center offers such hands-on classes as Suicide Bombing: Theory and Application, Care and Maintenance of Your Automatic Weapon, RPGs and IEDs, and the most popular course: Weapons of Mass Destruction.
There will be no art or music.
Dress code encourages boys to dress traditionally. Girls must wear burkas at all times.
Have people really thought this through?