Lousiana implements education voucher program to send tax money to religious schools

[Seifer]

I went to a religious grade school and a lot of this bashing of them is getting old. I learned "real" science. I learned "regular" math. It wasn't "God did it" (well, not completely).

Hey, guess what? So did I. I went to a religious private school, too, and I turned out an atheist. Whee! The system works! I also got exemplary marks throughout my school years because my private school cared more about our education than saving our eternal souls.

Like I said, I don't mind religious schools. However, some of the quotes from the school officials in that article are frightening. Not wanting to teach evolution because it might confuse the students? That's horrifying. It's also complete horseshit - they don't care about confusing the students, they care about teaching nothing but creationism because it fits best with their religious views.

This voucher program is probably the best thing that can happen to education in the US. Once enough kids flee from public schools, then the government might get their heads out of their asses and fix the schools.

Or religious/desperate/misguided parents will send their children to these private schools thinking they'll get a decent education when apparently that's not always the case. Then, since a nice chunk of tax payer money is going into the voucher system and away from public schools, the public school system will choke and fail due to immense budget shortages and the entire school system will become privatized.

That idea is scary, because private schools are NOT held to the same standards as public schools - at least not under the current laws. The fact that a private school can teach math based on the bible (I don't even know how that would work, but okay), is proof enough of that.

[LexiaFira]

and here i thought my state couldn't get worse
i understand not being able to afford it but how is it fair for the state to step in and grant vouchers like this?

yes it does help, but at the same time it doesn't. a kid gets a free ride but that doesn't mean that ride is safe. and some of the schools listed here don't seem to have all that is needed....top ranked for louisiana maybe but for the rest of us. not so much

[crashhelmet]

Louisiana Republican: When I Voted for State Funds to go to Religious Schools, I Didn’t Mean Muslim Ones

Whoops

Did someone forget that there are other religions or did she honestly think the bill was ONLY for Christian schools?

[Greenday]

What a tool. "Religion is okay!...as long as it's my religion and my religion only."

[mikoyan29]

I don't have a problem with vouchers per se. As long as the schools that get them have to follow the same curriculum as the Public Schools. Nor do I have a problem with religious schools as some of the best schools are Catholic schools. Where I have a problem is when vouchers are used for schools like teh examples in the story.

[Gravekeeper]

It must be really hard to fellate the Constitution so hard while ignoring everything it actually says.

The Democrats should run on the slogan "At Least We Took The Ballgag Out Of Its Mouth First"

[protege]

I went to a religious grade school and a lot of this bashing of them is getting old. I learned "real" science. I learned "regular" math. It wasn't "God did it" (well, not completely). Yes, there may be some that make me sound like a liar. I think I actually had a better education than the public school counterparts where I live (and it showed on tests and the public high school having several valedictorians/salutatorians from my grade school). We were held to the same standardized tests as the public school in town.

Yours might have been the exception. I too went to a religious grade school. I didn't mind learning about the Catholic faith the first couple of years. However, by about 5th grade, it got a bit annoying. That place spent so much time on it, that there wasn't enough time for anything else. Plus, the idea of "believe this or bad shit will happen" was a bit grating. Combine that, with then being forced to attend church services on Sunday, and I was a bit burnt out on religion.

What sucked, is that I had to relearn most things (other than phonics and reading) once I hit high school. Why? That school spent so much time and money on religion that they were seriously behind on other subjects. Why was it that the religious texts were always brand-new...but the science books were refugees from the 1970s? I mean, how much does religion really change in a year? Sadly, many of my classmates have similar stories.

[fireheart17]

It must be really hard to fellate the Constitution so hard while ignoring everything it actually says.

The Democrats should run on the slogan "At Least We Took The Ballgag Out Of Its Mouth First"

thanks for the laugh. I needed that SO badly.

To some minor degree the attitude towards private schools is virtually the same down here. At last count, the non-religious private schools we have in my state are:

2.5 Steiner/Waldorf schools. (the .5 refers to a primary school that runs both a regular stream and a Steiner stream together)
2 Montessori schools that run from B-7 or B-10. (AFAIK, there is no Montessori equivalent to a high school certificate)
1 school that does not have religious education, but was founded on Christian principles. (so semi-religious?)
3 pre-university schools (which only cater for Years 11 and 12 and are sort of run like uni, but students are working towards their high school certificate instead of a degree)
1 "progressive learning" school (which sort of runs more like a playgroup for primary-school students, but has the kids in more loose-knit groups according to age)
1 god-knows-what school (all I know about it is that the students DO have religious education, but it teaches the basic facts ABOUT the religions, rather than indoctrinating children into a particular system)

And on the religious front, we have 1 Muslim school, the rest are all various Christian denominations. We DID have a Jewish private school until a couple of years ago, which has gone into administration due to low numbers.

So yeah....sadly if a system like that WAS implemented, people wouldn't think much of the Islamic school

[Racket_Man]

I went to a religious grade school and a lot of this bashing of them is getting old. I learned "real" science. I learned "regular" math. It wasn't "God did it" (well, not completely). Yes, there may be some that make me sound like a liar. I think I actually had a better education than the public school counterparts where I live (and it showed on tests and the public high school having several valedictorians/salutatorians from my grade school). We were held to the same standardized tests as the public school in town.

This voucher program is probably the best thing that can happen to education in the US. Once enough kids flee from public schools, then the government might get their heads out of their asses and fix the schools.

I'm going to start a thread about fixing the schools (hopefully some/most of you will join me there). Might be some great conversation.

Yours might have been the exception. I too went to a religious grade school. I didn't mind learning about the Catholic faith the first couple of years. However, by about 5th grade, it got a bit annoying. That place spent so much time on it, that there wasn't enough time for anything else. Plus, the idea of "believe this or bad shit will happen" was a bit grating. Combine that, with then being forced to attend church services on Sunday, and I was a bit burnt out on religion.

What sucked, is that I had to relearn most things (other than phonics and reading) once I hit high school. Why? That school spent so much time and money on religion that they were seriously behind on other subjects. Why was it that the religious texts were always brand-new...but the science books were refugees from the 1970s? I mean, how much does religion really change in a year? Sadly, many of my classmates have similar stories.

My primary school education was conducted in a religious school also (grade 1 - 8).

The first one (grades 1 - 4) was in a struggling parish school with 2 huge parish schools quite near. Most of the textbooks were a bit ragged but the teachers were good.. The teachers were a mix of Nuns and lay teachers. The subjects were at least taught in a manner that we did learn science, geography, history, English, spelling, and math (old math), with only one religion class thrown in a couple of times a week.

The diocese finally closed down the school in 1970 and the majority of the students were assigned to one of the large parish schools. Things radically changed.

3 out of the 4 years I was there the nun who taught math that was TERRIBLE. and my math grades slipped significantly. she always wanted to teach religion instead of math. had a story for everything that always ended up with religion.

Now I was not the greatest at math but this did NOT help matters any. the other subjects were OK. we had a lay teacher (they were great) for science, english, history, etc.

This school however did the religion as part of the class schedule routine. and YES that got boring boring boring.

As I see it your mileage may vary when attending a religious school. It depends on who is running it, who the teachers are (religious or lay) and how the school's or diocese policies are set out.

[Tanasi]

Growing up I attended city and county schools, at the time I thought I received a pretty good education, I soon found out I didn't.
My kids have always attended a Christian school (one of the largest schools in my county) and I know they've received a good education as all (so far) have gone on to universities on full academic scholarships. I've gladly paid their tuition through 12th grade, I've also continued to pay all my county taxes. In my county like most in my AO 75% or more of the county and/or city budgets is directed to schools. In the last 20+ years my family received no benefit for those dollars.
That being said I have no problem with vouchers I wish we could have had them here, I have no problem with vouchers being used at religious schools (regardless of religion), I don't care what curriculum they teach. I do care that all kids in schools pass the same state achievement test that is administered by the state proctors. If the school fails well then that school is off the accepted list. I think that's as fair as it can be. If the parents think the local public school is good then reward that school with your kid's vouchers if not vote with your feet.