PaAC: I've had an idea.
Aug. 17th, 2006 02:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
velvetpageI was discussing the homeschooling debate with my dad just now, over steeped tea and donuts at Timmy's, and he pointed out that Canadians who want a religious education have an alternative to secular public schools, in the form of the Catholic school board. (At least, they do in most provinces.) We discussed alternative schools within the boards of education, and I had an idea.
It is quite common now for school boards to offer alternative or magnet programs within the public school framework. That is, a school will be geared towards high-level athletes, or towards the arts, or towards science. These schools are generally opt-in; that is, there is no real catchment area other than living within the confines of the school board itself, so no one is forced to attend these schools because of what street they live on.
Why not offer a magnet school for mainstream Protestant education? That is, an opt-in school, under the public umbrella, that gives kids the religious education they would otherwise be homeschooling or charter schooling to obtain. It would be staffed by teachers within the school board who followed the same creed, and those teachers would have all the same employment standards as their counterparts in the rest of the public board. The one and only difference would be the Christian focus.
In some areas, particularly the Bible Belt, you'd probably end up with two separate systems under one umbrella. That would be fine, as long as the public, secular schools continued to operate and were reasonably located to service the population who attended them. It would give parents and students a choice within the public system, so it would no longer be necessary to go outside the public system to get a religious education. The key here is that it has to be opt-in. So long as students and parents have a choice, it doesn't violate any rights. It's only when that choice is denied that there is a violation.
Thoughts?
It is quite common now for school boards to offer alternative or magnet programs within the public school framework. That is, a school will be geared towards high-level athletes, or towards the arts, or towards science. These schools are generally opt-in; that is, there is no real catchment area other than living within the confines of the school board itself, so no one is forced to attend these schools because of what street they live on.
Why not offer a magnet school for mainstream Protestant education? That is, an opt-in school, under the public umbrella, that gives kids the religious education they would otherwise be homeschooling or charter schooling to obtain. It would be staffed by teachers within the school board who followed the same creed, and those teachers would have all the same employment standards as their counterparts in the rest of the public board. The one and only difference would be the Christian focus.
In some areas, particularly the Bible Belt, you'd probably end up with two separate systems under one umbrella. That would be fine, as long as the public, secular schools continued to operate and were reasonably located to service the population who attended them. It would give parents and students a choice within the public system, so it would no longer be necessary to go outside the public system to get a religious education. The key here is that it has to be opt-in. So long as students and parents have a choice, it doesn't violate any rights. It's only when that choice is denied that there is a violation.
Thoughts?
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Date: 2006-08-17 07:41 pm (UTC)A) Separation of Church and State means the Church doesn't get involved in the State and the State doesn't get involved in the Church. I believe it's important for people to worship and believe how they want to, without the State mandating it in any way. If there was some kind of Religious Public Education then, yes, the State would be involved in deciding what is and is not taught. All Protestants do *not* believe the same things, and interpretations of the Bible are varied from one pastor to another, much less one denomination. The government getting involved and saying, "This is what we teach the children about Communion" and "This is what we teach the children about the virgin birth" and "This is how we explain what happened on the day of Pentacost." No no no. None of that flies with me, and I don't think it should fly with any Christian, or anyone who believes in the separation of Church and State.
B) The point above about then having a Jewish School System, and a Muslim School System, etc is valid. I know your reply was "if there are enough students and teachers" but, if there are not, then ... what? Majority rules, sucks to be them? The Christians get to send their kids off for a Christian education simply because there are *more* of them? That's hugely discriminatory and we'd be up to our eyeballs in lawsuits over it before the whole system collapsed.