School vouchers are one of the anti-public education projects closest to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’s heart. Not only do they drain money from public schools, they often send that public money to religious schools with extreme teachings. A new Huffington Post investigation gives insight into the scope of that:
Our analysis found that about 75 percent of voucher schools across the country are religious ― usually Christian or Catholic, with about 2 percent identifying as Jewish and 1 percent identifying as Muslim. There were gray areas: At least six schools identified as non-religious but used a curriculum created by the founder of the Church of Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard. [...]
It is difficult to ascertain exactly how many students use taxpayer funds to attend schools with evangelical curricula, but we do know that over 400,000 students nationwide currently attend school using money from a voucher or tax credit program, according to the education reform group EdChoice.
What are students being taught in evangelical Christian schools?
A HuffPost analysis of Abeka, Bob Jones and ACE textbooks confirms the recollections of these students. These materials inaccurately portray events in Muslim and Catholic history while perpetuating anti-Semitic stereotypes. The materials speak disparagingly of Native Americans and Native culture. [...]
[According to an Abeka textbook,] Nelson Mandela, the South African leader who helped dismantle apartheid, was a “Marxist agitator” who helped move the country toward “Communist tyranny” and a system of “radical ‘affirmative action.’” [...]
[Also according to Abeka] Satan did not want people worshipping God, so in the late 1800s, Satan hatched “the ideas of evolution, socialism, Marxist-socialism (Communism), progressive education, and modern psychology” to counter America’s increased religiosity.
And it is the avowed agenda of the United States secretary of education to send more public money into these schools, at the expense of public education.