This article from AP is one of the scariest things I've read in awhile. A school district in rural Oregon is trying to lure home-schoolers back into their district to get more state funding, which is based on attendance.
The scary part is where the Myrtle Point Oregon superintendent talks about fundamentalizing the curriculum.
Superintendent Robert Smith said the school system is also willing to adjust the curriculum - for example, by allowing discussion of creationism in biology class, or biblical literature in English courses.
``We're not setting up a church steeple. But students want academic freedom enough to encourage different things, and that should not be stifled by relying on exclusive treatments,'' Smith said.
In a nutshell, cultist parents have left the public school system to protect their children from teachings about science that conflict with their fundamentalist religion. And of course, to protect against horrible influences from the secular culture.
So the school district, suffering for money, decides they will give equal weight to these religious beliefs in classes in an effort to lure students back.
And of course AP, appealing to its highly conservative membership of local daily publishers, is there to flog the story.